\TRUTH  SEEKER  LIBRARY.     No.  13. 
January,  1892. 

•  MONTHLY.       (25  'cuts  )       $3  PER  VEA.II. 

— o  - 

:  Entered  in  Post-Offio,e   in  New  York, 
:      Jan.  1,  '92,  as  second- dac-s  matter. 


DEATH; 
BEDS 


NEW  YORK  ; 
:  THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  CO., 

62  VESEY  STREET 


GIFT   OF 

OTTILIA  c.  ANDERSON 


INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS 


"IDLE  TALES  OF  DYING  HORRORS* 


BY 

G.  W.  FOOTE 


NEW  YORK 

THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  COMPANY 
62  VESEY  STREET 


IFT 


INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 


INFIDEL  aeatn-beds  have  been  a  fertile  theme  of  pulpit  elo- 
quence. The  priests  of  Christianity  often  inform  their  .con- 
gre'gations  that  Faith  is  an  excellent  soft  pillow,  and  Eeason 
a  horrible  hard  bolster,  for  the  dying  head.  Freethought, 
they  Bay,  is  all  very  well  in  the  days  of  our  health  and 
strength,  when  we  are  buoyed  up  by  the  pride  of  carnal 
intellect!  but  ah!  how  poor  a. thing  it  is  when  health  and 
Strength  fail  us,  when,  deserted  by  our  self-sufficiency,  we 
need  the  support  of  a  stronger  power.  In  that  extremity  the 
proud  Freethinker  turns  to  Jesus  Christ,  renounces  his  wicked 
scepticism,  implores  pardon  of  the  Savior  he  has  despised, 
and  shudders  at  the  awful  scenes  that  await  him  in  the  next 
world  should  the  hour  of  forgiveness  be  past. 

Pictorial  art  has  been  pressed  into  the  service  of  this  plea 
for  religion,  and  in  such  orthodox  periodicals  as  the  British 
Workman,  to  say  nothing  of  the  horde  of  pious  inventions 
which  are  circulated  as  tracts,  expiring  sceptics  have  .been 
!  portrayed  in  agonies  of  terror,  gnashing  their  teeth,  wringing 
their  hands,  rolling  their  eyes,  and  exhibiting  every  sign  of 
despair. 

One  minister  of  the  gospel,  the  Rev.  Erskine  Neale,  has  not 
thought  it  beneath  his  dignity  to  compose  an  extensive  series 
of  these  holy  frauds,  under  the  title  of  Closing  Scenes.  This 
work  was,  at  one  time,  very  popular  and  influential ;  but  its 
specious  character  having  been  exposed,  it  has  fallen-  into 
disrepute,  or  at  least  into  neglect., 

The  real  answer  to  these  arguments,  if  they  may  be  called 
such,  is  to  be  found  in  the  body  of  the  present  work.  I  have 


M180640 


4  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

narrated  in  a  brief  space,  and  from  the  best  authorities,  tKo 
"  closing  scenes  "  in  the  lives  of  many  eminent  Freethinkers 
during  the  last  three  centuries.  They  are  not  anonymous 
persons  without  an  address,  who  cannot  be  located  in  time  or 
space,  and  who  simply  serve  "  to  point  a  moral  or  adorn  a 
tale."  Their  names  are  in  most  cases  historical,  and  in  some 
cases  familiar  to  fame ;  great  poets,  philosophers,  historians, 
and  wits,  of  deathless  memory,  who  cannot  be  withdrawn 
from  the  history  of  our  race  without  robbing  it  of  much  of 
its  dignity  and  splendor. 

In  some  instances  I  have  prefaced  the  story  of  their  deaths 
with  a  short,  and  in  others  with  a  lengthy,  record  of  their 
lives.  The  ordinary  reader  cannot  be  expected  to  possess  a 
complete  acquaintance  with  the  career  and  achievements  of 
every  great  soldier  of  progress ;  and  I  have  therefore  con- 
sidered it  prudent  to  afford  such  information  as  might  be 
deemed  necessary  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  character, 
the  greatness,  and  the  renown,  of  the  subjects  of  my  sketches. 
"When  the  hero  of  the  story  has  been  the  object  of  calumny 
or  misrepresentation,  when  his  death  has  been  falsely  related, 
and  simple  facts  have  been  woven  into  a  tissue  of  lying  absur- 
dity, I  have  not  been  content  with  a  bare  narration  of  the 
truth ;  I  have  carried  the  war  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and 
refuted  their  mischievous  libels. 

One  of  our  greatest  living  thinkers  entertains  "  the  belief 
that  the  English  mind,  not  readily  swayed  by  rhetoric,  moves 
freely  under  the  pressure  of  facts."1  I  may  therefore  venture 
to  hope  that  the  facts  I  have  recorded  will  have  their  proper 
effect  on  the  reader's  mind.  Yet  it  may  not  be  impolitic  to 
examine  the  orthodox  argument  as  to  death-bed  repentances. 

Oarlyle,  in  his  Essay  on  Voltaire,  utters  a  potent  warning 
against  anything  of  the  kind. 

"  Surely  the  parting  agonies  of  a  fellow-mortal,  when  the  spirit 
of  our  brother,  rapt  in  the  whirlwinds  and  thick  ghastly  vapors  of 
death,  clutches  blindly  for  help,  and  no  help  is  there,  are  not  the 
cenes  where  a  wise  faith  would  seek  to  exult,  when  it  can  no 
onger  hope  to  alleviate  !  For  the  rest,  to  louch  farther  on  those 

i  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor :  Preface  to  second  edition  of  Primitive  Culture 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

their  idle  tales  of  dying  ho-rrtirs,  remorse,  and  the  like  ;  to  write  of 
such,  to  believe  them,  or  disbelieve  them,  or  in  anywise  discuss 
them,  were  but  a  continuation  of  the  same  ineptitude.  •  He  who, 
after  the  imperturbable  exifr  of  so  many  Cartouches  and  Thurtells, 
in  every  age  of  the  world,,  can  continue  to  regard  'the  manner  of  a 
man's  death  as  a  test  of  his  religious  orthodoxy,  may  boast  himself 
impregnable  to  merely  terrestrial  logic."2 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  this  vigorous  passage;  I 
fancy,  however,  that  some  of  the  dupes  of  priestcraft  are  not 
absolutely  impregnable  to  terrestrial  logic,  and  I  discuss  the 
subject  for  their  sakes,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  held  guilty 
of  "  ineptitude." 

Throughout  the  world  the  religion  of  mankind  is  deter- 
mined by  the  geographical  accident  of  .  their  birth.  In 
England  men  grow  up  Protestants;  in  Italy,  Catholics;  in 
•Russia,  Greek  Christians ;  in  Turkey,  Mohammedans ;  in 
India,  Brahmans ;  in  China,  Buddhists,  or  Confucians.  What 
they  are  taught  in  their  childhood  they  believe  in  their  man- 
hood ;  and  they  die  in  the  faith  in  which  they  have  lived. 

Here  and  there  a  few  men  think  for  themselves.  If  they 
discard  the  faith  in  which  they  have  been  educated,  they  are 
never  free  from  its  influence.  It  meets  them  at  every  turn, 
and  is  constantly,  by  a  thousand  ties,  drawing  them  back  to 
the.  orthodox  fold.  The  stronger  resist  this  attraction,  the 
weaker  succumb  to  it.  Between  them  is  the  average  man, 
whose  tendency  will  depend  on  several  things.  If  he  ia 
isolated,  or  finds  but  few  sympathisers,  he  may  revert  to  the 
ranks  of  faith ;  if  he  finds  many  of  the  same  opinion  with 
himself,  he  will  probably  display  more  fortitude.  Even  Free- 
thinkers are  gregarious,  and  in  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best 
sense  of  the  words,  the  saying  of  Novalis  is  true — *'  My 
thought  gains  infinitely  when  it  is  shared  by  another." 

But  in  all  cases  of  reversion,  the  sceptic  invariably  turns 
to  the  creed  of  his  own  country.  What  does  this  prove'? 
Simply  the  power  of  our  environment,  and  the  force  of  early 
training.  When  "  infidels  "  are  few,  and  their  relatives  are 
orthodox,  what  could  be  .more  natural  .than  what  is  called  "  a 

•  Essays,  Vol.  II.,  p.  161  (People's  edition). 


6  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

death-bed  recantation"?  Their  minds  are  enfeebled  by 
disease,  or  the  near  approach  of  death ;  they  are  surrounded 
by  persons  who  continually  urge  them  to  be  reconciled  to  the 
popular  faith;  and  is  it  astonishing  if  they  sometimes  yield  to 
these  solicitations  ?  Is  it  wonderful  if,  when  all  grows  dim  and 
the  priestly  carrion-crow  of  the  death-chamber  mouths  his 
perfunctory  shibboleths,  the  weak  brain  should  become  dazed, 
and  the  poor  tongue  mutter  a  faint  response? 

Should  the  dying  man  be  old,  there  is  still  less  reason  for 
surprise.  Old  age  yearns  back  to  the  cradle,  and  as  Dante 
Rossetti  says — 

tc  Life  all  past 

Is  like  the  sky  when  the  sun  sets  in  it, 
Clearest  where  furthest  off." 

The  "  recantation  "  of  old  men,  if  it  occurs,  is  easily  under- 
stood. Having  been  brought  up  in  a  particular  religion,  their 
earliest  and  tenderest  memories  may  be  connected  with  it ; 
and  when  they  lie  down  to  die  they  may  mechanically  recur 
to  it,  just  as  they  may  forget  whole  years  of  their  maturity, 
and  vividly  remember  the  scenes  of  their  childhood.  Those 
who  have  read  Thackeray's  exquisitely  faithful  and  pathetic 
narrative  of  the  death  of  old  Colonel  Newcome,  will  remember 
that  as  the  evening  chapel  bell  tolled  its  last  note,  he  smiled, 
lifted  his  head  a  little,  and  cried  "  Adsum !  " — the  boy's  answer 
when  the  names  were  called  at  school. 

Cases  of  recantation,  if  they  were  ever  common,  which 
does  not  appear  to  be  true,  are  now  exceedingly  rare ;  so  rare, 
indeed,  that  they  .are  never  heard  of  except  in  anonymous 
tracts,  which  are  evidently  concocted  for  the  glory  of  God, 
rather  than  the  edification  of  Man.  Sceptics  are  at  present 
numbered  by  thousands,  and  they  can  nearly  always  secure 
at  their  bedsides  the  presence  of  friends  who  share  their  un- 
belief. Every  week  the  Freethought  journals  report  quietly, 
and  as  a  ^natter  of  course,  the  peaceful  end  of  "  infidels  "  * 
who,  having  lived  without  hypocrisy,  have  died  without  fear. 
They  are  frequently  buried  by  their  heterodox  friends,  and 
never  a  week  passes  without  the  Secular  Burial  Service,  or 


INTEODUCTION.  7 

some  other  appropriate  words,  being  read  by  sceptics  over  a 
sceptic's  grave. 

Christian  ministers  Know  this.  They  usually  confine  them- 
selves, therefore,  to  the  death-bed  stories  of  Paine  and 
Voltaire,  which  have  been  again  and  again  refuted.  Little, 
if  anything,  is  said  about  the  eminent  Freethinkers  who  have 
died  in  the  present  generation.  The  priests  must  wait  half 
a  century  before  they  can  hope  to  defame  them  with  success. 
Our  cry  to,  these  pious  sutlers  is  "  Hands  off  Refute  ,the 
arguments  of  Freethinkers,  if  you  can ;  but  do  not  obtrude 
your  disgusting  presence  in  the  death-chamber,  t  vent  your 
malignity  over  their  tombs." 

Suppose,  however,  that  every  Freethinker  turned  Chris- 
tian on  his  death-bed.  It  is  a  tremendous  stretch  of  fancy, 
but  I  make  it  for  the  sake  of  argument.  "What  would  it  prove  ? 
Nothing,  as  I  said  before,  but  the  force  of  our  surroundings 
and  early  training.  It  is  a  common  saying  among  Jews, 
when  they  hear  of  a  Christian  proselyte  "  Ah,  wait  till  he 
comes  to  die  !  "  As  a  matter  of  fact,  converted  Jews  generally 
die  in  the  faith  of  their  race ;  and  the  same  is  alleged  as  to 
the  native  converts  that  arc  made  by  our  missionaries  in  India. 

Heine  has  a  pregnant  passage  on  this  point.  ^Referring  to 
Joseph  Schelling,  who  was  "  an  apostate  to  his  own  thought," 
who  "  deserted  the  altar  he  had  himself  consecrated?'  and 
"  returned  to  the  crypts  of  the  past,"  Heine  rebukes  the  "  old 
believers"  who  cried  Kyrie  eleisdn  in  honor  of  such  a  con- 
version. "  That,"  he  says,  "  proves  nothing  for  their  doctrine. 
It  only  proves  that  man  turns  to  religion  when  ht>  is  old  and 
fatigued,  when  his  physical  and  mental  force  has  left  him, 
when  he  can  no  longer  enjoy  nor  reason.  So  many  Free- 
thinkers aro  converted  on  their  death-beds  !  .  .  •  But  at  least 
do  not  boast  of  them.  Thcso  legendary  conversions  belong 
at  best  to  pathology,  and  are  a  poor  evidence  for  your  cause. 
After  all,  they  only  prove  this,  that  it  was  impossible  for  you 
to  convert  those  Freethinkers  while  they  were  healthy. in 
body  and  miod."3 

3  Do  VAllewacine,  Vol.  I.,  p.  174..  . 


8  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

Re'nan  has  some  excellent  words  on  the  same  subject  in  his 
delightful  volume  of  autobiography.  After  expressing  a 
rooted  preference  for  a  sudden  death,  he  continues  :  "  I  should 
be  grieved  to  go  through  one  of  those  periods  of  feebleness, 
in  which  the  man  who  has  possessed'  strength  and  virtue  is 
only  th«  shadow  and  ruins  of  himself,  and  often,  to  the  great 
joy  of  fools,  occupies  himself  in  demolishing  the  life  he  has 
laboriously  built  up.  Such  an  old  age  is  the  worst  gift  the 
gods  can  bestow  on  man.  If  such  a  fate  is  reserved  for  me. 
I  protest  in  advance  against  the  fatuities  that  a  softened  brain 
may  make  me  say  or  sign.-  It  is  Ke*nan  sound  in  heart  and 
head,  such  as  I  am  now,  and  not  Kenan  half  destroyed  by 
death,  and  no  longer  himself,  as  I  shall  be  if  I  decompose 
gradually,  that  I  wish  people  to  listen  to  and.  believe." 4 

To  find  the  best  passage  on  this  topic  in  our  own  literature 
we  must  go  back  to  the  seventeenth  century,  and  to  Selden's 
Table  Talk,  a  volume  in  which  Coleridge  found  "more  weighty 
bullion  sense  "  than  he  "  ever  found  in  the  same  number  of 
pages  of  any  uninspired  writer."  Selden  lived  in  a  less 
mealy-mouthed  age  than  ours,  and  what  I  am  going  to  quote 
smacks  of  the  blunt  old  times ;  but  it  is  too  good  to  miss,  and 
all  readers  whp  are  not  prudish  will  thank  me  for  citing  it. 
"  For  a  priest,"  says  Selden,  "  to  turn  a  man  when  he  lies 
a  dying,  is  just  like  one  that  hath  a  long  time  solicited  a 
woman,  and  cannot  obtain  his  end  ;  at  length  he  makes  her 
drunk,  and  so  lies  with  her."  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  the 
writer  of  these  words  helped  to  draw  up  the  Westminster 
Confession  of  Faith. 

For  my  own  part,  while  I  have  known  many  Freethinkers 
who  were  stedfast  to  their  principles  in  death,  I  have  never 
known  a  single  case  of  recantation.  The  fact  is,  Christians 
are  utterly  mistaken  on  this  subject.  It  is  quite  intelligible 
that  those  who  believe  in  a  vengeful  God,  and  an  everlasting 
hell,  should  tremble  on  "  the  brink  of  eternity ;  "  and  it  is 
natural  that  they  should  ascribe  to  others  the  same  trepida- 
tion. But  a  moment's  reflection  must  convince  them  that  this 

*  Souvenirs  PEn/ance  et  de  Jeimesse,  p.  377. 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

is  fallacious.  The  oiily  terror  in  death  is  the  apprehension 
of  what  lies  .beyond  it,  and  that  emotion  is  impossible  to  a 
sincere  disbeliever.  Of  course  the  orthodox  may  ask  "  But  is 
there  a  sincere  disbeliever  P "  To  which  .1  can  only  reply, 
like  Diderot,  by  asking  "  Is  there  a  sincere  Christian  ?  " 

Professor  Tyndall,  while  repudiating  Atheism  himself,  has 
borne  testimony  to  the  earnestness  of  others  who  embrace  it, 
"  I  have  known  some  of  the  most  pronounced  among  them," 
he  says,  "  not  only  in  life  but  in  death — seen  them  approaching 
with  open  eyes  the  inexorable  goal,  with  no  dread  of  a  hang- 
man's whip,  with  no  hope  of  a  heavenly  crown,  and  still  as 
mindful  of  their  duties,  and  as  faithful  in.  the  discharge  of 
them,  as  if  their  eternal  future  depended  on  their  latest 
deeds."5 

Lord  Bacon  said,  "  I  do  not  believe  that  any  man  fears  to 
be  dead,  but  only  the  stroke  of  death."  True,  and  the 
physical  suffering,  and  the  pang  of  separation,  are  the  same 
for  all.  Yet  the  end  of  life  is  as  natural  as  its  beginning, 
and  the  true  philosophy  of  existence  is  nobly  expressed  in 
the  lofty  sentence  of  Spinoza,  "A  free  man  thinks  less  of 
nothing  than  of  death." 

«*  So  live,  that  when  thy  summons  conies  to  join 
The  innumerable  caravan,  which  moves 
To  that  mysterious  realm,  where  each  shall  take 
His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, 
Thou  go  not,  like  the  quarry-slave  at  night, 
Scourged  to  his  dungeon,  hut  sustained  and  soothed 
By  an  unfaltering  trust,  approach  thy  grave, 
Ijike  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams."6 


*  Fortniyhtly  Itericw,  November,  1877. 
"  Bryant, 


NOTE  TO  THE   SECOND  EDITION. 

NEARLY  five  thousand  copies  of  this  little  work  having 
been  sold  in  two  years,  I  now  publish  a  second  edition^ 
containing  a  considerable  number  of  fresh  names, 
which  will  be  found  marked  with  a  star  in  the  index. 
Scrupulous  care  has  been  taken,  as  before,  to  state 
nothing  but  facts,  vouched  for  by  irreproachable  autho- 
rities. 


LORD    AMBERLEY  il 


LORD    AMBERLEY. 

Viscount  Amberley,  the  eldest  son  of  the  late  Earl  Russell, 
and  the  author  of  a  very  heretical  w&rk  entitled  an  Analysis 
of  Religious  Belief,  lived  and  died  a  Freethinker.  His  will, 
stipulating  that  his  son  should  be  educated  by  a  sceptical 
friend  was  set  aside  by  Earl  Russell;  the  law  of  England 
being  such,  that  Freethinkers  are  denied  the  parental  rights 
which  are  enjoyed  by  their  Christian  neighbors.  Lady 
Frances  Russell,  who  signs  with  her  initials  the  Preface  to 
Lord  Amberley's  book,  which  was  published  after  his  death, 
writes  :  "Ere  the  pages  now  given  to  the  public  had  left  the 
press,  the  hand  that  had  written  them  was  cold,  the  heart — 
of  which  few  could  know  the  loving  depths — had  ceased  to 
beat,  the  far-ranging  mind  was  for  ever  still,  the  fervent 
spirit  was  at  .rest.  Let  this  be  remembered  by  those  who 
read,  and  add  solemnity  to  the  BO-lemn  purpose  of  the  book." 


JOHN     BASKERVILLE. 

Baskerville's  name  is  well  known  in  the  republic  of  letters, 
and  his  memory  still  lingers  in  Birmingham,  where  he 
carried  on  the  trade  of  a  printer.  He  was  celebrated  for  the 
excellence  of  his  workmanship,  the  beauty  of  his  types^  and  the 
splendor  of  his  editions.  Born  in  1706,  he  died  on  January  8, 
1775.  He  was  buried  in  a  tomb  in  his  own  garden,  on  which 
was  place'1  the  following  inscription*: 

Stranger, 

Beneath  this  cone,  in  unconsecrated  ground, 
A  friend  to  the  liberties  of  mankind  directed 

His  body  to  be  inurned. 

May  the  example  contribute  to  emancipate  thy 
Mind  from  the  idle  fears  of  Superstition 

And  the  wicked  arts  of  Priesthood. 


12  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

This  virtuous  mail  and  useful  citizen  took  precautions 
against  "the  wicked  arts  of  priesthood."  "  His  will,'1  says 
Mr.  Leslie  Stephen, "professed  open  contempt  for  Christianity, 
and  the  biographers  who  reproduce  the  document  always  veil 
certain  passages  with  lines  of  stars  as  being  '  far  too  indecent 
(1.6.  irreverent)  for  repetition.' r?  * 


HENKI   BAYLE. 

Henri  Bayle  was  the  author  of  the  famous  Dictionary  which 
bears  his  name.  This  monument  of  learning  and  acuteness 
has  been  of  inestimable  service  to  succeeding  writers.  Gibbon 
himself  laid  it  under  contribution,  and  acknowledged  his 
indebtedness  to  the  "  celebrated  writer  "  and  "  philosopher  " 
of  Amsterdam.  Elsewhere  Gibbon  calls  him  "-the  indefa- 
tigable Bayle,"  an  epithet  which  is  singularly  appropriate, 
since  he  worked  fourteen  hours  daily  for  over  forty  years. 
Born  on  November  18,  1647,  Bayle  died  on  December  28, 1706. 
He  continued  writing  to  the  very  end,  and  "  labored  con- 
stantly, with  the  same  tranquility  of  mind  as  if, death  had 
not  been  ready  to  interrupt  his  work."  *  This  is  the  testimony 
of  a  friend;  and  a  similar  statement  is  made  in  the  Nouvelle 
Biograpliie  Genei'ale,  whrch  says  .11  mourut  tout  hdbille,  et  pour 
ainsi  dire  la  plume  a  la  main — "  He  died  in  his  clothes,  and  as 
it  were  pen  in  hand."  According  to  Des  Maiseaux,  "  He  saw 
death  approaching  without  either  fearing  or  desiring  it." 
Nor  did  his  jocularity  desert  him  any  more  than  his  scep- 
ticism. Writing,  to  Lord  Shaftesbury  on  October  29,  1706 — 
only  two  months  before  his  death — he  said  :  "  I  should  have 
thought  that  a  dispute  with  Divines  would  put  me  out  of 
humor,  but  I  find  by  experience  that  it  serves  as  an  amuse- 
ment 'for  me  in  the  solitude  to  which  I  have  reduced  myself." 

The  final  moments  of  this  great  scholar  are  described  by  a 
friend  who  had  the  account  from  an  attendant.  "  M.  Bayle 
died,"  says  M.  Seers,  "  with  great  tranquility,  and  without 

*  Dictionary  of  National  Biography. 

8  Des  Maiseaux,  Life  of  Bayle,  prefixed  to  the  English  translation 
of  the  "  Dictionary." 


JEBEMY   BENTHAM.  13 

anybody  with  him.  At  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning  his  land- 
lady  entered  his  chamber ;  he  aaked  her,  but  with  a  dying 
voice,  if  his  fire  was  kindled,  and  died  a  moment  after,  with- 
out M  Basnage9,  or  me,  or  any  of  his  friends  with  him." 


JEREMY  BENTHAM. 

Bent  ham  exercised  a  profound  influence  on  the  party  of 
progress  for  nearly  two  generations.  He  was  the  father  of 
Philosophical  Eadicalism,  which  did  so  much'  to  free  the 
minds  and  bodies  of  the  English  people,  and  which  counted 
among  its  swordsmen  historians  like  Grote,  philosophers 
like  Mill,  wits  like  Sidney  Smith,  journalists  like  Fonblanque, 
and  politicians  like  Roebuck.  As  a  reformer  in  jurispru- 
dence he  has  no  equal.  His  brain  swarmed  with  progressive 
ideas  and  projects  for  the  improvement  and  elevation  of 
mankind ;  and  his  fortune,  as  well  as  his  intellect,  was  ever 
at  the  service  of  advanced  causes.  His  scepticism  was  rather 
suggested  than  paraded  in  his  multitudinous  writings,  but  it 
was  plainly  expressed  in  a  few  special  volumes.  Not  Paul, 
But  Jesus,  published  under  the  pseudonym  of  Gamaliel  Smith 
is  a  slashing  attack  on  the  Great  Apostle.  The  Church  of 
England  Catechism  Explained  is  a  merciless  criticism  of  that 
great  instrument  for  producing  mental  and  political  slaves. 
But  the  most  thorough-going  of  Bentham's  works  was  a  little 
volume  written  by  Grote  from  the  Master's  notes  —  the 
Influence  of  Natural  Religion  on  the  Temporal  Happiness  of 
Mankind — in  which  theology  is  assatted  as  the  historic  and 
necessary  enemy  of  human  liberty,  enlightenment,  and 
welfare. 

Born  on  February  15,  1748,  Bentham  died  on  June  6,  18321 
By  a  will  dating  as  far  back  as  1769,  his  body  was  left  for  the 
purposes  of  science,  "  not  out  of  affectation  of  singularity,  but 
to  the  intent  and  with  the  desire  that  mankind  may  reap 
some  small  benfit  in  -and  by  my  decease,  having  hitherto  had 
email  opportunities  to  contribute  thereto  while  living."  A 

•  M.  Basnage— the  author  of  the  first  History  of  the  Jews. 


14  INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 

memorandum  affixed  shows  that  this  clause  was  deliberately 
confirmed  two  months  before  his  death. 

Dr.  Southwood  Smith  delivered  a  lecture  over  Bentham's 
remains,  three  days  after,  his  death,  in  the  'Webb  Street 
School  of  Anatomy.  He  thus  described  the  last  moments  of 
his  illustrious  friend  : 

«  Some  time  before  his  death,  when  lie  firmly  believed  lie  was 
near  that  hour,  he  said  to  one  of  his  v.  disciples,  who  was  watching 
over  him  : — f  I  now.  feel  that  I  am  dying :  our  care  must  be  to 
minimise  the  -pain.  Do  not  let  any  of  the  servants  come  into  my 
room,  and  keep  awajr  the  youth :  it  will  be  distressing  to  them, 
and  they  can  be  of  no  service.  Yet  I  must  not  be  alone ;  you  will 
remain  with  me,  and  you.  only ;  and  then  we  shall  have  reduced 
the  pain  to  the  least  possible  amount.'  Such  were  his  last  thoughts 
and  feelings."  » 

Mr.  Leslie  Stephen  relates  a  similar  story  in  the  Dictionary 
of  National  Biography.  "  During  his  last  illness,"  says  Mr. 
Stephen  "  he  asked  the  doctor  to  tell  him  if  there  was  any 
prospect  of  recovery.  On  being  informed  that  there  was 
none,  he  replied  serenely  "  Very  well,  be  it  so  ;  then  minimise 
pain."  Bentham  may-  have  used  the  same  language  to  the 
doctor  and  the  disciple,  and  it  was  natural  on  his  lips.  As  a 
Utilitarian,  he  regarded  happiness  as  the  only  good  and  pain 
as  the  only  evil.  He  met  death  "  serenely,"  but  like  a  sensible 
man  he  "  minimised  the  pain. " 


PAUL  BEET. 

Paul  Bert  was  born  at  Auxerre  in  October,  1833,  and  he 
died  at  Tonquin  011  November  11,  1886.  His  father  educated 
him  in  a  detestation  of  priests,  and  his  own  nature  led  him  to 
the  pursuit  of  science.  After  -studying  anatomy  under 
Gratiolet,  ho  took  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  in  1863, 
and  three  years  later  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science;  teach- 
ing zoology  at  Bordeaux  and  succeeding  Jlourens  at  the 
Museum.  Going  to  Paris,  he  became  preparator  to  the  great 
anatomist  Claude  Bernard,  whom. he  succeeded  at  the 
Sorbonne  in  1869.  His  political  life  began  with  the  fall  of  the 

I  Dr.  Southwood  Smith's  Lecture,  p.  62. 


PAUL   BEET.  15 

Empire.  Gambetta  appointed  him  prefect  of  the  Nord,  where 
he  toiled  mightily  with  General  Faidherbe.  After  the  war  he 
entered  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  devoted  his  great 
powers  to  the  development  6f  public  education.  Largely 
through  his  labors,.,  the  Chamber  voted  free,  secular,  and 
compulsory  instruction  for  both  sexes.  He  was  idolised  by 
the  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses  in  France.  Being 
accused  of  a  "blind  hatred "  of  priests,  he  replied  in  the 
Chamber — "  The  conquests  of  education  are  made  on  the  do- 
main of  religion;  I  am  forced  to  meet  on  my  road  Catholic 
superstitions  and  Eomish  policy,  or  rather  it  is  •  across  their 
empire  that  my  path  seems  to  me  naturally  traced."  Speaking 
at  a  mass  meeting  at  the  Oirque  d'Hiver,  in  August,  1881, 
Gambetta  himself  being  in  the  chair,  Paul  Bert  declared  that 
"  modern  societies  march  towards  morality  in  proportion  as 
they  leave  religion  behind.,"  Afterwards  he  published  his 
scathing  Morale  des  Jesuites,  over  twenty  thousand  copies  of 
which  were  sold  in  less  than  a  year.  The  book  was  dedicated 
to  Bishop  Freppel  in  a  vein  of  masterly  irony.  -Paul  Bert 
also  published  a  scientific  work,  the  Premiere  Aniiee  d*  Enseigne- 
ment  Scientifique,  which  is  almost  universally  used  in  the 
French  primary  schools. 

During  Gambetta's  short-lived  government  Paul  Bert  held 
the  post  of  Minister  of  Public  Instruction.  In  1886  he  went 
out  to .  Tonquin  as  Eesident  General.  Hard  work  and  the 
pestilential  climate  laid  him  low,  and  he  succumbed  to 
dysentery.  A  fortnight  before  his  death  he  telegraphed  to 
M.  Freycinet,  desiring  him  to  say  nothing  of  his  illness  for 
the  sake  of  his  friends  and  relatives.  Some  days  later  he 
telegraphed  again,  "  You  are  right ;  it  is  better  for  me  to  die 
at  my  post  than  to  quit  Tonquin  at  the  present  moment." 
"When  the  news  of  his  death  reached,  the  French  Chamber, 
M.  Freycinet  announced  the  event  from  the  tribune; 

"  I  announce  with  the  deepest  sorrow  the  death  of  M.  Paul  Bert. 
He  died  literally  on  the  field  of  honor,  broken  down  by  the 
fatigues  and  hardships  which  lie  so  bravely  endured  in  trying  to 
carry  out-  the  glorious  -task  which  he  had  undertaken.  The 
Chamber  loses  by  his  death  one  of  its  most  eminent  members, 
Science  one  of  its  most  illustrious  votaries,  France  one  of  her  most 
loving  and  faithful  children,  and  the  Government  a  fellow-worker 


16  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

of  inestimable  value,  in  whom  we  placed  the  fullest  confidence. 
Excuse  me,  gentlemen,  if  because  my  strength  .fails  me  I  ain 
unable  to  proceed."  . 

THe  sitting  was  raised  as  a  mark  of  respect,  and  the  next 
day  the  Chamber  voted  a  public  funeral  and  a  pension  to 
Paul  Bert's  family.  Bishop  Freppel  opposed  the  first  vote  on 
the  ground  that  the  deceased  was  an  inveterate  enemy 
of  religion,  but  he  was  ignominiously  beaten,  the  majority 
against  him  being  379  to  45.  Despite  this  miserable  protest, 
while  Paul  Bert's  body  was  on  its  way  to  Europe  the  clerical 
party  started  a  canard  about  his  "  conversion."  Perhaps  the 
story  originated  in  the  fact  that  he  had  daily  visited  tlie 
Haoni  hospital,  distributing  books  and  medicines,  and  speak-' 
ing  kind  words  to  the  nuns  in  attendance.  •  It  was  openly 
stated,  and  unctuously  '  commented  on  in  the  religious  jour- 
nals, that  the  Eesident  General  had  sent  for  a  Catholic 
bishop  on  his  death-bed  and  taken  the  sacrament ;  and  as 
inventions  of  this  kind  are  always  circumstantial,,  it  was  said 
that  the  Papal  Nuncio  at  ](Jisbon  had  received  this  intelli- 
gence. But  on  December  29  the  Papal  Nuncio  telegraphed 
that  his  name  had  been  improperly  used ;  and  two  days  later, 
when  the  French  war- ship  touched  at  the  Suez  Canal,  Madame 
Bert  telegraphed  that  the  story  was  absolutely  and  entirely 
false.  Still,  this  pious  effort  to  convert  a  corpse  was  ^not  a 
complete  failure.  Some  of  the  journals  which  published  the 
"  conversion  "  had  not  the  honesty  to  publish  the  contradic- 
tion ;  and  probably  the  death-bed  repentence  of  Paul  Bert 
will  be  devoutly  believed  by  many  religionists  until  they 
themselves  cross  •"  the  bourne  from  whence  no  traveller 
returns,"  and  have  no  further  interest  in  lies  or  truth. 


LOBD  BOLINGBEOKE. 

Henry  St.  John,  Yiscounii  Bolingbroke,  was  born  in  1672 
at  Battersea,  .where  he  also  died  on  December  12,  1751.  His 
life  was  a  stormy  one,  and  on  the  fall  of  the  Tory  ministry, 
of  which  he  was  a  distinguished  member,  he  was  impeached 
by  the  Whig  parliamesfr  under  the  leadership  of  Sir  "Robert 


LORD  BOLINGBROKE.  17 

"Walpole.  It  was  merely  a  party  prosecution,  and  although 
Bolingbroke  was  attainted  of  high  treason,  he  did  not  lose  a 
friend  or  forfeit  the  resp'ect  of  honest  men.  Swift  and  Pope 
held' him  in  the  highest  esteem;  they  corresponded  with  him 
throughout  their  lives,  and  it' was  from  Bolingbroke  that  Pope 
derived.thg  principles  of  the  Essay  on  Man.  That  Boling- 
broke's  abilities  were  of  the  highest  order  cannot  be  gainsaid. 
His  political  writings  are  masterpieces  of  learning,  eloquence, 
and  wit,  the  style  is  sinewy  and  graceful,  and  in  tho  greatest 
heat  of  controversy  he  never  ceases  to  be  a  gentloman.  -His 
philosophical  writings  were  published  after  his  death  by  Iris 
literary  executor,  David  Mallett,  whom  Johnson  described  as 
"  a  beggarly  Scotchman,"  who  was  "  left  half-a-crown  v  to  fire 
off  a  blunderbuss,  which  his  patron  had  charged,  against "  reli- 
gion and  morality."  Johnson's  opinion  on  such  a  subject  is, 
however,  of  trifling  importance.  He  hated  Scotchmen  arid 
Infidels,  and  he  told  Boswell  that  Voltaire  and  Eousseau 
deserved  transportation  more  than  any  of  the  scoundrels  who 
were  tried  at  the  Old  Bailey. 

Bolingbroke's  philosophical  writings  show  him  to  have 
been  a  Deist.  He  believed  in  God  but  he  rejected  Revelation. 
His.  views  are  advanced  and  supported  with  erudition,  elo- 
quence, and  masterly  irony.  The  approach  of  death,  which 
was  preceded  by  the  excruciating  disease  of  cancer  in  the 
cheek,  did  not  produce  the  least  change  in  his  convictions. 
According  to  Goldsmith,  "  He  was  consonant  with  himself  to 
the  last ;  and  those  principles  which  he  had  all  along  avowed, 
he  confirmed  with  his  dying  breath,  having  given  orders  that 
none  of  the  clergy  should  be  permitted  to  trouble  him  in  his 
last  moments."2 


FRANCIS  BROUSSAIS. 

Francis  Jean  Victor  Broussais,  the  great  French  physician 
and  philosopher,  was  born  in  1772.  He  died  on  November  17, 
1838,  leaving  behind  him  a  "  profession  of  faith,"  which  was 

2  Life  of  Lord  Bolingbroke ;  Works,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  248.  Edition: 
Tegg,  1835. 


18  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

published  by  his  biographer.  With  respect  to  immortality, 
he  wrote,  "  I  have  no  fears  or  hopes*  as  to  future  life,  since  I 
am  unable  to  conceive  it."  His  views  on  the  God  idea  were 
equally  negative.  .  "  I  cannot,"  he  said,  "  form  any  notion  of 
such  a  power."3 


GIOKDANO  BKTJNO. 

This  glorious  martyr  of  Freethought  did  not  die  in  a  quiet 
chamber,  tended  by  loving  hands.  He  was  literally 
"  butchered  to  make  a  Boman  holiday."  When  the  assassins 
of  "  the  bloody  faith  "  kindled  the  fire  which  burnt  out  his 
splendid  life,  he  was  no  decrepit  man,  nor  had  the  finger  of 
Death  touched  his  cheek  with  a  pallid  hue.  The  blood 
coursed  actively  through  his  veins,  and  a  dauntless  spirit 
shone  in  his  noble  eyes.  It  might  have  been  Bruno  that 
Shelley  had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  those  thrilling  lines  in 
Queen  Mob,: 

*  I  was  an  infant  when  my  mother  went 

To  see  an  Atheist  burned.     She  took  me  there  :' 

The  dark  -robed  priests  were  met  around  the  pile, 

The  multitude  was  gazing  silently  ; 

And  as  the  culprit  passed  with  dauntless  mien, 

Tempered  disdain  in  his  unaltering  eye, 

Mixed  with  a  quiet  smile,  shone  calmly  forth  : 

The  thirsty  fire  crept  round  his  manly  limbs  ; 

His  resolute  eyes  were  scorched  to  blindness  soon  ; 

His  death-pang  rent  my  heart  !     The  insensate  mob 

Uttered  a  cry  of  triumph,  and  I  wept." 

Giordano  Bruno  was  born  at  Nola,  near  Naples,  in  1548, 
ten  years  after  the  death  of  Copernicus,  and  ten  years  before 
the  birih  of  Bacon.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  a  novice 
in  the  monastery  of  San  Domenico  Maggiore,  and  after  his 
year's  ndvitiate  expired  he  took  the  monastic  vows.  Stud  ying 
deeply,  he  became  heretical,  and  an  act  of  accusation  was 
drawn  up  against  the  boy  of  sixteen.  Eight  years  later  he 
was  threatened  with  another  trial  for  heresy.  A  third  pro- 


'    8  H.  de  Mont£srex  Notice.  Hisivrifiuo  sur  la,   Vie,  les   Travauas,  etc., 
of  p.  Broussais.     Paris,  1839. 


GIORDANO  BRUNO.  19 

cess  was  more  to  be  dreaded,  and  in  his  twenty^eighth  year 
Bruno  fled  from  his  persecutors.  He  visited  Rome,  Noli, 
Yenice,  Turin  and  Padua.  At  Milan  he  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  After  teaching  for  some  time  in 
the  university,  he  went  to  Chambery,  but  the  ignorance  and 
bigotry  of  its  monks  were  too  great  for  his  patience.  He 
next  visited  Geneva,  but  although  John  Calvin  was  dead,  his 
dark  spirit  still  remained,  and  only  flight  preserved  Bruno 
from  the  fate  of  Servetus.  Through  Lyons  he  passed  to 
Toulouse,  where  he  was  elected  Public  Lecturer  to  the 
University.  In  1579  he  went  to  Paris.  The  streets  were  still 
foul  with  the  blood  of  the  Bartholomew  massacres,  but  Bruno 
declined  a  professorship  at  the  Sorbonne,  a  condition  of  which 
was  attending  mass.  Henry  the  Third,  however,  made  him 
Lecturer  extraordinary  to  the  University.  Paris  at  length 
became  too  hot  to  hold  him,  and  he  went  to  London,  where 
he  lodged  with  the  French  Ambassador.  His  evenings  were 
mostly  spent  with  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Fulke  Grevile,  Dyer, 
and  Hervey.  So  great  was  his  fame  that  he  was  invited  to 
read  at  the  University  of  Oxford,  where  he  also  held  a  public 
debate  with  its  orthodox  professors  on  the  Copernican 
astronomy.  Leaving  London  in  1584,  he  returned  to  Paris, 
and  there  also  he  publicly  disputed  with  the  Sorbonne.  His 
safety  being  once  more  threatened,  he  went  to  Marburg,  and 
thence  to  Wittenburg,  where  he  taught  for  two  years.  At 
Helenstadt  he  was  excommunicated  by  Boetius.  Repairing 
to  Frankfort,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  nobleman,  who 
lured  him  to  Venice  and  betrayed  him  to  the  Inquisition.  The 
Venetian  Council  transferred  him  to  Rome,  where  he  languished 
for  seven  years  in  a  pestiferous  dungeon,  and  was  repeatedly 
tortured,  according  to  the  hellish  code  of  the  Inquisition. 
At  length,  on  February  10,  1600,  he  was  led  aut  to  the 
church  of  Santa  Maria,  and  sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive,  or, 
as  the  Holy  Church  hypocritically  phrased  it,  to  be  punished 
"  as  mercifully  as  possible,  and  without  effusion  of  blood.'' 
Haughtily  rasing  his  head,  he  exclaimed :  "  You  are  more 
afraid  to  pronounce  my  sentence  than  I  to  receive  it."  He 
was  allowed  a  week's  grace  for  recantation,  but  without  avail ; 
and  on  the  17th  of  February,  1600,  he  was  burnt  to  death 


20  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

on  the  Field  of  Mowers.  To  the  last  he  was  brave  aud 
defiant ;  he  contemptuously  pushed  aside  the  crucifix  they 
presented  him  to  kiss  y  and,  as  one  of  his  enemies  said,  ho 
died  without  a  plaint  or  a  groan. 

Such  heroism  stirs  the  blood  more  than  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet.  Bruno  stood  at  the  stake  in  solitary  and  awful 
grandejir>  There  was  not  a  friendly  face  in  the  vast  crowd 
around  him.  It  was  one  man  against  the  world.  Surely  the 
knight  of  Liberty;  the  champion  of  Freethought,  who  lived 
such  a  life  and  died\such  a  death,  without  hope  of  reward  on 
earth  or  in  heaven,  sustained  only  by  his  indomitable  man- 
hood, is  worthy  to  be  accounted  the  supreme  martyr  of  all 
time.  •  He  towers  above  the  less  disinterested  martyrs  of 
Faith  like  a  colossus;  the  proudest  of  them  might  walk  under 
him  without  bending. 

Authorities : 

H.  Bartliolmess,  Jordano  Brnno,  Viols. 
Frith,  I.,  Life  of  Giordano  Sn-.no. 


HENEY  THOMAS  BUCKLE. 

The  au<fchor  of  the  famous  History  of  Civilisation  believed  in 
God  and  immortality,  but  he  rejected  all  the  special  tenets  of 
Christianity.  He  died  at  Damascus  on  May  29, 1862.  His 
incoherent  utterences  in  the  fever  that  carried  him  off 
showed  that  his  mind  was  still  dwelling  on  the  uncomplet  ed 
purpose  of  his  life.  "  Oh,  my  book,"  he  exclaimed,  "  my  book, 
I  shall  never  finish  my  book  !"4  His  end,  however,  was  quite 
peaceful.  His  biographer  says :  "  He  had  a  very  quiet  night, 
with  intervals  of  consciousness ;  but  at  six  in  the  morning  a 
sudden  and  very  marked  change  for  the  worse  became  but 
too  fearfully  evident ;  and  at  a  quarter  past  ten  he  quietly 
breathed  his  last,  with  merely  a  wave  of  the  hand."  5 

4  Pilgrim,  Memories,  by  J.  Stuart  Glennie,  p.  508. 
6  Life  and  Writings  of  Henry  Thomas  Buckle,  by  A.  Huth :  Vol.  IL, 
p.  252. 


LOED    BYEON.  21 

LORD  BYRON. 

ETo  one  can  read  Byron's  poems  attentively  without  seeing 
that  he  was  not  a  Christian,  and  this  view  is  amply  corrobo- 
rated by  his  private  letters,  notably  the  very  explicit  one  to 
Hodgson,  which  has  only  recently  been  published.  Even 
the  poet's  first  and  chief  biographer,  Moore,  was  constrained 
to  -admit  that  "Lord  Byron  was,  to  the  last,  a  sceptic." 

Byron  was  born  at  Holies  Street,  London,  on  January  22, 
1788.  His  life  was  remarkably  eventful  for  a  poet,  but  its 
history  is  so  easily  accessible,  and  so  well  known,  that  we 
need  not  summarise  it  here.  His  death  occurred  at  Misso- 
longhi  on  April  19,  1824.  '  Greece  was  then  struggling  for 
independence,  and  Byron  devoted  his  life  and  fortune  to  her 
cause.  His" sentiments  on  this  subject  are  expressed  with 
power  and  dignity  in  the  lines  written  at  Missolonghi  on  his 
thirty-sixth  birthday.  The  faults  of  his  life  were  many,  but 
they  were  redeemed  by  the  glory  of  his  death. 

Exposure,  which  his  declining  health  was  unfitted  to  bear, 
brought  on  a  fever,  and  the  soldier-poet  of  freedom  died 
without  proper  attendance,  far  from  those  he  loved.  He 
conversed  a  good  deal  at  first  with  his  friend  Parry,  who 
records  that  "  he  spoke  of  death  with  great  composure. "  The 
day  before  he  expired,  when  his  friends  and  attendants  wept 
round  his  bed  at  the  thought  of  losing  him,  he  looked  at  one  of 
them  steadily,  and  said,  half  smiling,  "  Oh  questa  e  una  bella 
ecena  !  " — Oh  what  a  fine  scene !  After  a  fit  of  delirium,  he 
called  his  faithful  servant  Fletcher,  who  offered  to  bring  pen 
and  paper  to  take  down  his  words.  "  Oh  no,"  he  replied 
"  there  is  no  time.  Go  to  my  sister — tell  her — go  to  Lady 

Byron — you  will  see  her  and  say ."  Here  his  voice 

became  indistinct.  "For  nearly  twenty  minutes  he  muttered 
to  himself*  but  only  a  word  now  and  then  could  be  distin- 
guished. :He  then  said,  "  Now,  I  have  told  you  all."  Fletcher 
replied  that  he  had  not  understood  a  word.  "Not  understand 
me  P  "  exclaimed  Bryon,  with  a  look  of  the  utmost  distress, 
"  what  a  pity  ! — then  it  is  too  late ;  all  is  over."  He  tried  to 
utter  a  few  more  words,  but  none  were  intelligible  except 
"  my  sister— my  child."  After  the  doctors  had  given  him  a 


22  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

sleeping  draught,  lie  niuttered  "  Poor  Greece !— poor  town 
— my  poor  servants  ! — my  hour  is  come ! — I  do  not  care  for 
deat&i — but  why  did  I  not  go  home  P — There  are  things  tnat 
make  the  world  dear  to  me :  for  the  irest,  I  am  content  to 
die."  He  spoke  also  of  Greece,  saying,  "  I  'have  given  her 
my  time,  my  means',  my  health— and  now  I  give  her  my  life ! 
what  could  I  'do  more  P  "  About  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  he 
said  st  "  Now  I  shall  go  to  sleep."  He  then  fell  into  the 
slumber  from  which  he  never  woke.  At  a,  quarter  past  six 
on  the '  following  day?  he  opened  his  eyes  and  immediately 
shut  them  again.  The  physicians  felt  his  pulse— he  was 
dead.6 

His  work  was  done.  As  Mr.  *  Swinburne  wrote  in  1865, 
"  A  little*  space  was  allowed  him  to  show  at  least  an  heroic 
purpose,  and  attest  a  high  design;  then,  with  all  things 
unfinished  before  him  and  behind,  he  fell  asleep  after  many 
troubles  and  triumphs.  Few  can  have  ever  gone  wearier  to 
the  grave :  none  with  less  fear."7  The  pious  guardians  of 
Westminster  Abbey  denied  him  sepulture  in  its  holy  precincts 
but  he  found  a  grave  at  Hucknall,  and  "after  life's  fitful 
fever  he  sleeps  well." 

Byron's  own  views  on  the  subject  of  death-beds  were  ex- 
pressed in  a  letter  to  Murray,  dated  June  7, 1820.  "  A  death- 
bed," he  wrote,  "  is  a  matter  of  nerves  and  constitution,  not 
of  religion.'"  He  also  remarked  that  "Men  died  calmly 
before  the  Christian  era,  and  since,  without  Christianity." 


RICHARD  CARLILB. 

1/chard  Carlile  was  born  at  Ashburton,  in  Devonshire,  on 
December  8, 1790.  His  whole  life  was  spent  in  advocating 
Freethought  and  Republicanism,  and  in  resisting  the  Blas- 
phemy Laws.  His  total  imprisonments  for  the  freedom  of 
the  press  amounted  to  nine  years  and  four  months.  Thirteen 
days  before  his  death  he  penned  these  words r  "The  enemy 

«  'Byron's  Life  and  Letters,  by;  Thomas  Moore,  pp.  684 — 688. 
.  9  Preface  (p.  28)  to  a  Selection  from  Byron's  poems,  1865. 


WILLIAM   CLIFFORD,  25 

with  whom  I  have'to  grapple  is  one  with  whom  no  peace  can 
be  made.  Idolatry  will  not  parley;  superstition  will  not 
treat  on  covenant.  They  must  be  uprooted  for  public  and 
individual  safety."  Oarlile  died  on  February  10,  1843.  He 
was  attended  in  his  last  illness  by  Dr.  Thomas  Lawrence,  the 
author  of  the  once  famous  Lectures  on  Man.  Wishing  to  be 
useful  in.death  as  in  life,  Oarlile  devoted  his  body  to  dissec- 
tion. His  wish  was  complied  with  by  the  family,  and  the 
post-mortem  examination  was  recorded  in  the  Lancet.  The 
burial  took  place  at  Kensal  Green  Cemetery,  where  a  clergy- 
man insisted  on  reading  the  Church  Service  over  his  remains. 
"  His  eldest  son  Eichard,"  says  Mr.  Holyoake,  "  who  repre- 
sented Jus  sentiments  as  well  as  his  name,  very  properly 
protested  against  the  proceedings,  as  an  outrage  upon  the 
principles  of  his  father  and  the  wishes  of  the  family.  Of 
course  the  remonstrance  was  disregarded,  and  Eichard,  his 
brothers,  and  their  friends,  left  the  ground."8  After  their 
departure,  the  clergyman  called  the  great  hater  of  priests  his 
"  dear  departed  brother,"  and  declared  that  the  rank  Materi- 
alist had  died  "  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  glorious 
resurrection." 


WILLIAM  KINGDON  CLIFFOED. 

•Professor  Clifford  died  all  too  early  of  consumption  on 
March  3,  1879.  He  was  one  of  the  gentlest  and  most  amiable 
of  men,  and  the  centre  of  a  large  circle  of  distinguished 
friends.  His  great  ability  was  beyond  dispute ;  in  the  higher 
mathematics  he  enjoyed  a  European  reputation.  Nor  was 
his  courage  less,  for  he  never  concealed  his  heresy,  but  rather 
proclaimed  it  from  the  housetops.  A  Freethinker  to  the 
heart's  core,  he  "  utterly  dismissed  from  his  thoughts,  as 
being  unprofitable  or  worse,  all  speculations  on  a  future  or 
unseen  world  " ;  and  "  as  never  man  loved  life  more,  so  never 
man  feared  death  less."  He  fulfilled,  continues  Mr.  Pollock, 
"  well  and  truly  the  great  saying  of  Spinoza,  often  in  his 

8  Life  and  Character  of  Richwrd  Carlile,  by  G.  J.  Jlolyoake. 


24  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

mind  and  on  his  lips :  "Homo  liber  de  nulla  re  minus  quam 
de  morte  cogitat,  [A  free  man  thinks  less  of  nothing  than 
of  death.]"9  Clifford  faced  the  inevitable  with,  the  utmost 
.calmness. 

'« For  a  week  he  had  known  that  it  might  come  at*  any  moment, 
and  looked  to  it  stedfastly.  So  calmly  had  he  received  the  warn- 
ing which  conveyed  this  knowledge  that  it  seemed  at  the  instant 
as  if  he  did  not  understand  it:  .  .  .  He  gave  careful  and  exact 
directions  as  to  the  disposal  of  his  works.  .  .  .  More  than  this,  his 
interest  in  the  outer  world,  his  affection  for  his  friends  and  his 
pleasure,  in  their  pleasures,  did  not  desert  him  to  the  very  last. 
He  still  followed  the  course  of  events,  and  asked  for  public  news 
on  the  morning  of  his  death,  so  strongly  did  he  hold  fast  his  part 
in  the  common  weal  and  in  active  social  life."1 

Clifford  was  a  great  loss  to  the  "  good  old  cause."  He  was 
a  most  valiant  soldier  of  progress,  cut  off  before  a  tithe  of  his 
work  was  accomplished; 


ANACHABSIS  CLOOTZ. 

Among  the  multitude  of  figures  in  the  vast  panorama  of 
the  French  Bevolution  was  Anacharsis  Clootz.  He  appears 
several  times  in  Carlyle' s  great  epic.  Now  he  introduces  a 
deputation  of  foreigners  of  all  -nations  to  the  Assembly. 
Later  he  presents  to  the  Convention  "  a  work  evincing  the 
nullity  of  all  religions."  Finally,  on  March  24,  1794,  he  is 
one  of  a  tumbril-load  of  victims,  nineteen  in  all,  on  the  road, 
to  the  guillotine.  "  Clootz,"  says  Carlyle,  "  still  with  an  air 
of  polished  sarcasm,  endeavors  to  jest,  to  offer  cheering 
'  arguments  of  Materialism ' ;  he  requested  to  be  executed 
last,  « in  order  to  establish  certain  principles.'  "8  Clootz's 
biographer,  Avenel,  gives  a  fuller  account  of  the  scene 
«' Let  me  lie  under  the  green  sward,"  exclaimed  the  doomed 
Atheist,  "  so  that  .1  may  be  re-born  in  vegetation."  "  Nature," 

•  Lectures  and  Essays,  by  Professor  Clifford.  Pollock's  Introduc- 
tion,  p.  25. 

-  Ibid,  p.  26. 
*  Carlyle,  French  Revolution,  Vol.  III.,  p.  215. 


ANTHONY   COJLLINS.  25 

he  said,  "  is  a  good  mother,  who  loves  to  see  her  children 
appear  and  re-appear  in  different  forms.  All  she  includes  is 
eternal,  imperishable  like  herself.  Now  let  me  sleep  !"8 


ANTHONY  COLLINS. 

Anthony  Collins  was  one  of  the  chief  English  Freethinkers- 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  Professor  Eraser  calls  him  "  this 
remarkable  man,''4  Swift  refers  to  him  as  a  leading  sceptic 
of  that  age.  He  was  a  barrister,  born  of  a  good  Essex  family 
in  1676,  and  dying  on  Dec.  13,  1729.  Locke,  whose  own 
character  was  manly  and  simple,  was  charmed  by  him.  "  He 
praised  his  love  of  truth  and  moral  courage,"  says  Professor 
Eraser,  "  as  superior  to  almost  any  other  he  had  ever  known, 
and  by  his  will  he  made  him  one  of  his  executors."5  Yet 
bigotry  was  then  so  rampant,  that  Bishop  Berkeley,  who, 
according  to  Pope,  had  every  virtue  under  heaven,  actually 
said  in  the  Guardian  that  the  author  of  A  Discourse  on  Free- 
thinking  "  deserved  to  be  denied  the  common  benefits  of  air 
and  water."  Collins  afterwards  engaged  in  controversy 
with  the  clergy,  wrote  against  priestcraft,  and  debated  with 
Dr.  Samuel  Clarke  "  about  necessity  and  the  moral  nature  of 
man,  stating  the  arguments  against  human  freedom  with  a 
logical  force  unsurpassed  by  any  necessitarian.''6  With 
respect  to  Collins's  controversy  on  "  the  soul,"  Professor 
Huxley  says :  "  I  do  not  think  anyone  can  read  the  letters 
which  passed  between  Clarke  and  Collins  without  admitting 
that  Collins,  who  writes  with  wonderful  power  and  closeness 
of  reasoning,  has  by  far  the  best  of  the  argument,  so  far  as 
the  possible  materiality  of  the  soul  goes ;  and  that  in  this 
battle  the  Goliath  of  Freethinking  overcame  the  champion  of 
what  was  considered  orthodoxy."7  According  to  Berkeley, 
Collins  had  announced  "  that  he  was  able  to  demonstrate  the 
impossibility  of  God's  existence,"  but  this  is  probably  the- 

3  Georges  Avenel,  Anacharsis  Clootz,  Vol.  II.,  p.  471.     Paris,  1865. 

«  Berkeley,  by  A.  C.  Fraser,  LLJX,  p.  99.       5  Ibid.    «Ibid. 

7  Critiques  <wd  Addresses,  p.  324. 


26  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

exaggeration  of  an  opponent.  "We  may  be  sure,  however, 
that  he  was  a  very,  thorough  sceptic  with  regard  tq 
Christianity.  His  death  is.  thus  referred  to  in  the  Biographia 
Britannica : — 

"  Notwithstanding  alt-the  reproaches  cast  upon  Mr.  Collins  as  an 
enemy  to  religion,  impartiality  obliges  us  to  remark,  what  is  said, 
and  generally  believed  to  be  true,  upon  his  death-bed  he  declared 
*  That,  as  he  had  always  endeavored,  to  the  best  of  his  abilities  to 
serve  his  Qpd,  his  king,  and  his  country,  so  he  was  persuaded  he 
was  going  ito  the  place  which  God  had  designed  for  those  who  love 
him  * :  to  which  he  added  that  <  The  Catholic  religion  is  to  love  God, 
cmd  to  love  man* ;  and  he  advised  such  as  were  about  him  to  have  a 
constant  regard  to  these  principles." 

There  is  probably  a  good  deal  apocryphal  in  this  passage* 
but  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  nothing  is  said  about  any 
dread  of  death.  Another  memorable  fact  is  that  Collins  left 
his  library  to  an  opponent,  Dr.  Sykes.  It  was  large  and 
curious,  and  always  open  to  men  of  letters.  Collins  was^sp 
earnest  a  seeker  for  truth,  and  so  candid  a  controversialist, 
that  he  often  famished  his  antagonists  with  books  to  confute 
himself. 


AUGUSTE  COMTE. 

Augnste  Comte,  the  founder  of  Positivism,  was  born  on 
January  19, 1798.  The  aim  of  his  philosophy,  as  set  forth  on 
the  title-page  of  his  masterpiece,  was  to  "  reorganise  society, 
without  God  or  king,  by  the  systematic  cultus  of  Humanity." 
Owing  to  a  congenital  disorder  of  the  nervous  system,  he  was 
liable  to  occasional  Aberrations  of  mind,  and  he  was  once  put 
under  restraint.  'But  his  life  was  nevertheless  dignified  and 
fruitful,  and  the  literature  of  social,  political  and  religious 
speculation  shows  what  a  profound  influence-he  has  exercised 
on  many  of  the  best  minds  of  our  age. 

Comte  died  on  September  5,  1857,  of  the  painful  disease  "of 
cancer  in  the  stomach.  M.  Littre,  his  greatest  disciple,  thus 
describes  his  last  days  : — "  The  fatal  hour  arrived.  M.  Comte, 
•who  had  borne  his  malady  with  the  greatest  fortitude,  met 
•with  no  less  firmness  the  approach  of  death.  His  bodily 


CONDOKCET.  27 

-weakness   became,  extreme,    and  he  expired  without  pain 
having  around  him  some  of  his  most  cherished  disciples."8 


CONDORCET. 

Marie-Jean- Antome-NicholaB,  Marquis  do  Condorcet,  was 
born  at  Eibemont  in  Picardy,  in  1743.  As  early  as  1764  he 
composed  a  work  on  the  integral  calculus.  In  1773  he  was 
appointed  perpetual  seepetary  to  the  French  Academy.  He 
•was  an  intense  admirer  of  Yoltaire,  and  wrote  a  life  of  that 
great  man.  At  the  commencement  of  the  Eevolution  he 
ardently  embraced  the  popular  cause.  In  1791  he  represented 
Paris  in  the  Legislative  Assembly,  of  which  he  was  imme- 
diately elected  secretary.  It  was  on  his  motion  that,  in  the 
following  year,  all  orders  of  nobility  were  abolished.  Elected 
by  the  Aisne  department  to  the  new  Assembly  of  1792,  he 
was  named  a  member  of  the  Constitutional  Committee,  which 
also  included  Danton  and  Thomas  Paine.  After  the  execu- 
tion of  Louis  XVI.,  he  was  opposed  to  the  excesses  of  the 
extreme  party.  Always  showing  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions, he  soon  became  the  victim  of  proscription.  "  He  cared 
as  little  for  his  life,"  says  Mr.  Morley,  "  as  Danton  or  St.  Just 
cared  for  theirs.  Instead  of  coming  down  among  the  men  of 
the  Plain  or  the  frogs  of  the  Marsh,  he  withstood  the  Mountain 
to  its  face."  While  hiding  from  those  who  thirsted  for  his 
blood,  and  burdened  with,  anxiety  as  to  the  fate  of  his  wife 
and  child,  he  wrote,  without  a  single  book  to  refer  to,  his  novel 
and  profound  Esquisse  d'un  Tableau  Historique  des  Proges  da 
V Esprit  Humain.  Mr.  Morley  says  that  "  Among  the  many 
wonders  of  an  epoch  of  portents  this  feat  of  intellectual 
abstraction  is  not  the  least  amazing."  Despite  the  odious  law 
that  whoever  gave  refuge  to  a  proscribed  person  should  sufler 
death,  Condorcet  was  offered  shelter  by  a  noble-hearted 
woman,  who  said  "  If  you  are  outside  the  law,  we  are  not 
outside  humanity."  But  he  would  not  bring  peril  upon  her 

8  E.  Littre,  Auguste  Comte  et  la  PM'osophie  Positive,  p.  643. 


2B  INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 

house,  and  he  went  forth  to  his  doom.  Arrested  at  Clamart- 
eous-Meudon,  he  was  conducted  to  prison  at  Bourg-la-Eeine» 
"Wounded  in  the  foot,  and  exhausted  with  fatigue  and  priva- 
tion, he  was  flung  into  a  miserable  cell.  It  was  the  27th  of 
March,  1794  "  On  the  morrow,"  says  Mr.  Morley,  "  when 
the  gaolers  came  to  see  him,  they  found  him  stretched  upon 
the  ground,  dead  and  stark.  So  he  perished — of  hunger  and 
weariness,  say  some ;  of  poison  ever  carried  by  him  in  a  ring, 
say  others."0  The  Abbe*  Morellet,  in  his  narrative  of  the 
death  of  Condorcet  (Memoires,  ch.  xxiv.),  says  that  the  poison 
was  a  mixture  of  stramonium  and  opium,  but  he  adds  that 
the  surgeon  described  the  death  as  due  to  apoplexy.  In  any 
case  Condorcet  died  like  a  hero,  refusing  to  save  his  "life  at 
the  cost  of  another's  danger. 


EOBEET   COOPER 

Eobert  Cooper  was  secretary  to  Robert  Owen  and  editor  of 
the  London  Investigator.  His  lectures  on  the  Bible  and  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul  still  enjoy  a  regular  sale,  as  well  as 
his  Holy  Scriptures  Analysed.  He  was  a  thorough-go^ng 
Materialist,  and  he  never  wavered  in  this  philosophy.  He 
died  on  May  3,  1868.  The  National  Eeformer  of  July  26, 1868, 
contains  a  note  written  by  Cooper  shortly  before  his  death. 

"  At  a  moment  when  the  hand  of  death  is  suspended  over  me, 
my  theological  opinions  remain  unchanged  ;  months  of  deep  and 
silent  cogitation,  under  the  pressure  of  long  suffering,  have  con- 
firmed rather  than  modified  them.  I  calmly  await,  therefore,  all 
risk  attached  to  these  convictions.  Conscious  that,  if  mistaken,  I 
have  always  been  sincere,  I  apprehend  no  disabilities  -for  inipres- 
•sions  I  cannot  resist." 

It  may  be  added  that  Eobert  Cooper  was  no  relation  to 
Thomas  Cooper. 


D'ALEMBEET. 

D'Alembert,   the   founder   of  the   great   Encylop&dia,  the 
friend  of  Voltaire  and  the  colleague  of  Diderot,  was  born  on 

•  Miscellanies.    By  John  Morley.     Vol.  I.,  p.  75. 


DANTOX.  29 

November  16,  1717.  His  death  occurred  on  October  29,  1783. 
His  opinions  on  religion  were  those  of  a  firm  Agnostic.  "  As 
for  the  existence  of  a  supreme  intelligence,"  he  wrote  to 
Frederick  the  Great,  "  I  think  that  those  who  deny  it  advance 
far  more  than  they  can  prove,  and  scepticism  is  the  only 
reasonable  course."  He  goes  on  to  say,  .however,  that  experi- 
ence invincibly  proves  the  materiality  of  the  "  soul."1  D'Alem- 
bert's  last  moments  were  in  harmony  with  his  philosophy. 
According  to  his  friend  and  executor,  Condorcet,  his  last 
days  were  spent  amidst  a  numerous  company,  listening  to 
their  conversation,  and  sometimes  enlivening  it  with  plea- 
santries or  stories.  "  He  only,"  says'  Oondorcet,  "  was  able  to 
think  of  other  subjects  than  himself,  and  to  give  himself  t/> 
gaiety  and  amusement."2 


DANTON. 

Danton,  called  by  Oarlyle  the  Titan  of  the  Eevolution,  and 
certainly  its  greatest  figure  after  Mirabeau,  was  guillotined 
on  April  5,  1794.  He  was  only  thirty-five,  but  he  had  made  a 
name  that  will  live  as  long  as  the  history  of  France.  With 
all  his  faults,  says  Carlyle,  "  he  was  a  Man  ;  fiery-real,  from 
the  great  fire-bosom  of  Nature  herself."  Some  of  his  phrases 
are  like  pyramids,  standing  sublime  above  the  drifting  sand 
pf  human  speech.  It  was  he  who  advised  "  daring,  and  still 
idaring,  and  ever  daring."  It  was  he  who  cried  "The 
coalesced  kings  of  Europe  threaten  us,  and  as  our  gage  of 
battle  we  fling  before  them  the  head  of  a  king."  It  was  he 
who  exclaimed,  in  a  rapture  of  patriotism,  "  Let  my  name  be 
blighted,  so  that  France  be  free."  And  what  a  saying  was 
that,  when  his  friends  urged  him  to  flee  from  the  Terror, 
"  One  does  not  carry  his  country  with  him  at  the  sole  of  his 
shoe !" 

Danton  would  not  flee.  "  They  dare  not  "  arrest  him,  he 
eaid ;  but  he  was  soon  a  prisoner  in  the  Luxembourg.  "  What 

1  J.  Morley,  Diderot,  Vol.  II.,  p.  160. 
*  (Euvres  Philosophique  do  D'Alenibert,  Vol.  I.,  p.  131.  An.  XIII.  (1805). 


80  INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 

is  your  name  and  abode  ?  "  they  asked  him  at  the  tribunal. 
"  My  name  is  Danton,"  he  answered,  "a  name  tolerably  known 
in  the  Eevolution  :  my  abode  will  soon  be  Annihilation  ;  but 
I  shall  live  in  the  Pantheon  of  Hisjbory."  '  Ee'plying  to  his 
infamous  Indictment,  his  magnificent  voice  "  reverberates 
with  the  roar  of  a  lion  in  the  toils."  The  President  rings  his 
bell,  enjoining  calmness,  says  Carlyle,  in  a  vehement  manner* 
"  What  is  it  to  thee  how  I  defend  myself?  "  cries  Danton ; 
"  the  right  of  dooming  me  is  thine  always.  The  voice  of  a 
man  speaking  for  his  honor  and  life  may  well  drown  the 
jingling  of  thy  bell !" 

Under '  sentence  of  death  he  preserved,  as  Jules  Claretie- 
says,  that  virile  energy  and  superb  sarcasm  which  were  the 
basis  of  his  character.  Fabre  d'Eglantine  being  disquieted 
about  his  unfinished  comedy,  Danton  exclaimed  "Des  vers!  Des 
vers  !  Dans  huit  jours  tu  en  feras  plus  que  tu  nB  voudras  !  '* 
Then  he  added  nobly,  "  "We  have  finished  our  task,  let  us 
sleep."  Thus  the  time  passed  in  prison: 

On  the  way  to  the  guillotine  Danton  bore  himself  proudly. 
Poor  Camille  Desmoulins  struggled  and  writhed  in  the  cart, 
which,  was  surrounded  by  a  howling  mob/  "  Calm,. my 
friend,"  said  Danton,  "heed  not  that  vile  canaille."  Herault 
de  Sechelles,  whose  turn  it  was  to  die  first,  tried  to  embrace- 
his  friend,  but  the  executioners  prevented  him.  "  Fools,"  said 
Danton,  "  you  cannot  prevent  our  heads  from  meeting  in  the- 
basket."  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  the  thought  of  home 
flashed  through  his  mind.  "  0  my  wife,"  he.  exclaimed,  "  my 
well-beloved,  I  shall  never  see  thee  more  then!  "  But  recover- 
ing himself,  he  said  "  Danton,  no  weakness  !  "  Looking  the 
executioner  in  the  face,  he  cried  with  his  great  voice,  "  You 
will  show  my  head  to  the  crpwd ;  it  is  worth  showing;  you 
don't  see  the  like  in  these  days."  The  next  minute  that 
head,  the  one  that  might  have  guided  France  best,  was  severed 
from  his  body  by  the  knife  of  the  guillotine.  What  a  man 
that  Danton  was !  With  his  Herculean  form,  his  huge  black 
head,  his  mighty  voice,  his  passionate  nature,  his  fiery  cour- 
age, his  strong  sense,  his  poignant  wit,  his  geniality,  and  his 
freedom  from  cant,  he  was  a  splendid  and  unique  figure.  An 
Atheist,  he  perished  in  trying  to  arrest  bloodshed.  Eobes- 


CHARLES   DARWIN.  31 

piere,  the  Deist,  continued  the  bloodshed  till  it  drowned  him. 
The  two  men  were  as  diverse  in  nature  as  in  creed,  and  Pant  on 
killed  by  Robespierre,  as  Courtois  said,  was  Pyrrhus  killed  by 
a  woman !  . 

[The  reader  may  consult  Carlyle's  French  JtetoTwttbn,  Book  -vi. 
ch;  ii.  •  and  Jules  Claretie's  Camille  Deqmouttns  et  les  Dcmtonistes 
ch.  vi.J 


CHARLES  DABTfaff. 

Charles  Darwin,  the  great  Evolutionist,  whose  fame  is  as 
wide  as  civilisation,  was  born  at  Shrewsbury  on  February  12, 
1809.  Intended  for  a  clergyman,  he  became  a  naturalist ;  and 
although  his  bump  of  reverence  was  said  to  be  large  enough 
for  ten  priests,  he -passed  by  gentle  stages  into  the  most 
extreme  scepticism.  From  the  age  of  forty  he  was,  to  use  his 
own  words,  a  complete  disbeliever  in  Christianity.  Further 
reflection  showed  him  that  nature  bore  no  evidences  of  desi  gn, 
and  the  prevalence  of  struggle  and  suffering  in  the  world 
compelled/him  to  reject  the  doctrine  of  infinite  benevolence. 
He  professed  himself  an  Agnostic,  regarding  the  problem  of 
the  universe  as  beyond  our  solution.  "For  myself,"  he 
wrote,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  any  revelation.  As  for  a  future 
life,  every  man  must  judge  for  himself  between  conflic  ting 
vague  probabilities."8  Yet  the  Church  -buried  him  in 
Westminster  Abbey  "  in  the  sure  and  certain  hope  of  a  glorious 
resurrection" 

Darwin  died  on  April  19,  1882,  in  the  plenitude. of  his  fame, 
having  outlived  the  opposition  of  ignorance  and  bigotry,  and 
witnessed  the  triumph  of  his"  ideas.  His  last  moments  are 
described  by  his  eldest  son  Francis : 

"  No  especial  change  occurred  during  the  beginning  of  April, 
but  on  Saturday  15th  he  was  seized  with  giddiness  while  sitting 
at  dinner  in  the  evening,  and  fainted  in  an  .attempt  to  reach  his 
sofa.  On  the  17th  he  -was  again  better,  and  in  my  temporary 
absence  recorded  for  me  the  progress  of  an  experiment  in  -which 
I  was  engaged.  During  the  night  of  April  18th,  about  a  quarter 
to  twelve,  he  had  a  severe  attack  and  passed  into  a  faint,  from 

8  Life  and  Letters  of  Chwles  Dcvrwin,  Vol.  I.,  p.  307. 


32  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 


ilch  he  "was  brought  back  to  consciousness  with  great  difficulty. 
3  seemed  to  recognise  the  approach  of  death,  and  said,  'I  o.m  not 


whic 

He  seemed  to  recognise  the  app ,  __ 

the  least  afraid  to  die'  All  the  next  morning  he  suffered  from 
terrible  nausea  and  faintness,  and  hardly  rallied  before  the  end 
came.  He  died  about  four  o'clock  on  Wednesday,  April  19,  1882.* 

No  one  in  his  senses  would  have  supposed  that/  he  wa» 
"  afraid  to  die,"  yet  it  is  well  to  have  the  words  recorded  by 
the  son  who  was  present.  Pious  ingenuity  will  be  unable  to 
traduce  the  death-bed  of  Charles  Darwin. 


EBASMUS.DAKWIN. 

lErasm'us  Darwin,  the  physician,  and  grandfather  of  the 
great  Charles  Darwin,  was  born  on  December7 12,  1731.  His 
death  took  place  on  April  10,  1802.  While  driving  from 
patient  to  patrent,  Erasmus  Darwin  composed  a  lengthy 
poem,  in  which  he  anticipated  many  of  the  ideas  of  modern 
evolution.  '  His  scepticism  was  strongly  pronounced.  Ha 
believed  in  God,  but  not  in  Christianity. .  Even  the  Unitarians 
-were  too  orthodox  for  him ;  indeed,  he  called  Unitarianism  a 
feather  bed  to  catch  a  falling  Christian.  /His  death  was 
singularly  peaceful.  "  At  about  seven  o'clock,"  says  his 
grandson,  "he  was  seized  with  a  violent  shivering  fit,  and 
went  into  the  kitchen  to  warm-  himself;  he  retired  to  his 
etudy,  lay  on  the-  sofa,  became  faint  and  cold,  and  was 
moved  into  an  arm  chair,  where,  without  pain  or  emotion  of 
any  kind,  he  expired  a  little  before  nine  o'clock."5  A  few 
years  before,  writing  to  a  friend,  he  said,  "  When  I  think  of 
dying  it  is  always  without  pain  or  fear." 


DELAMBKE. 

Jean  Baptist  Joseph  Delambre,  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished French  astronomers,  was  born  at  Amiens  on  Sep- 
tember 19,  1749.  He  was  a  pupil  of  Lalande,  and  like  him  an 
Atheist.  He  died,  after  a  long  and  painful  illness,  on  August 

*  Vol.111.,  p.  358.' 
5  Charles  Darwin,  Life  of  Erasmus  Darwin,  p.  126. 


DENIS   DIDEROT.  33 

18,1822.  In  announcing 'his  death,  a  pious  journal  wrote: 
"  It  appears  that  this  savant  had  the  misfortune,  to  be  an  un- 
believer. A  disciple  of  Lalande,  he  had  inherited  from  him, 
if  not  his  enthusiastic  Atheism,  at  least  an  entire  alienation 
from  religion.  We  wish  we  could  announce  that  sickness 
had  brought  him  back  to  the  faith ;  but  we  have  been  unable 
to  obtain  any  information  to  that  effect."  *  Like  Lalande,  the 
astronomer  was  faithful  to  the  convictions  of  his  life. 


DEHIS  DIDEROT. 

Barely  has  the  world  seen  a  more  fecund  mind  than 
Diderot's.  Voltaire  called  him  Pantophile,  for  everything 
came  within  the  sphere  of  his.  mental  activity.  The  twenty 
volumes  of  his  collected  writings  contain  the  germ-ideas  of 
nearly  all  the  best  thought  of  our  age,  and  his  anticipations 
of  Darwinism  are  nothing  less  than  extraordinary.  He  had 
not  Voltaire's  lightning  wit  and  supreme  grape  of  style,  nor 
Bousseau's  passionate  and  subtle  eloquence;  but'  he  was 
superior  to  either  of  them  in  depth  and  solidity,  and  he  was 
surprisingly  ahead  of  his  time,  not  simply  in  his  treatment 
of  religion,  but  also  in  his  view  of  social  and  political,  prob- 
lems. His  historical  monument  is  the  great  Encyclopaedia. 
For  twenty  years  he  labored  on  this  colossal  enterprise, 
assisted  by  the  best  heads  in  France,  but  harassed  and 
thwarted  by  the  government  and  the  clergy.  The  work  is 
out  of  date  now,  but  it  inaugurated  an  era ;  in  Mr.  Morley's 
words,  "it  rallied  all  that  was  then  best  in  Prance  round 
the  standard  of  light  and  social  hope."  Diderot  tasted  im- 
prisonment in  1749,  and  many  times  afterwards  his  liberty 
was  menaced.  Nothing,  however,  could  intimidate  or  divert 
Itha  from  his  task ;  aud  he  never  quailed  when  the  ferocious 
beast  of  persecution,  having  tasted  the  blood  of  meaner 
victims,  turned  an  evil  and  ravenous  eye  on  him. 

Carlyle's  brilliant  essay  on  Diderot  is- ludicrously  unjust. 
The  Scotch  puritan  -was  quite  unable  to  judge  the  French 

•  L'Ami  de  la  Religion  ct  du  &oi,  tome  xxxiii.,  p.  111. 

0 


34  INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 

atheist.  A  greater  than  Carlyle  wrote :  "  Diderot  is  Diderot, 
a  peculiar  individuality ;  whoever  holds  him  or  his  doings 
cheaply  is  a  Philistine,  and  the  name  of  them  is  legion." 
Goethe's  dictum  outweighs  that  of  his  disciple. 

Diderot's  character,  no  less  than  his  genius,  was  misunder- 
stood by  Carlyle.  His  materialism  and  atheism  were  in- 
tolerable to  a  Calvinist  steeped  in  pantheism ;  and  his  free- 
dom of  life,  which  might  be  pardoned  or  excused  in  a  Scotch 
poet,  "was  disgusting  in  a  French  philosopher.  Let  not  the 
reader  be  biased  by  Carlyle' s  splenetic  utterances  on  Diderot, 
but  turn  to  more  sympathetic  and  impartial  judges. 

Born  at  Langres  in  1713,  Diderot  died  at  Paris  1784  His 
life  was  long,  active,  and  fruitful.  His  personal  appearance 
is  described  by  Mr.  Morley : — "  His  admirers  declared  his 
head  to  be  the  ideal  head  of  an  Aristotle  or  a  Plato.  His 
brow  was  wide,  lofty,  open,  gently  rounded.  The  arch  of  the 
eyebrow  was  full  of  delicacy ;  the  nose  of  masculine  beauty ; 
the  habitual  expression  of  the  eyes  kindly  and  sympathetic ; 
but  as  he  grew  heated  in  talk  they  sparkled  like  fire ;  the 
curves  of  the  mouth  bespoke  an  interesting  mixture  of  finesse, 
grace,  and  geniality.  His  bearing  was  nonchalant  enough, 
but  there  was  naturally  io.  the  Carriage  of  the  head, 
especially  when  he  talked  with  action;  much  dignity,  energy, 
and  nobleness."  7 

His  conversational  powers  were  great,  and  showed  the 
fertility  of  his  genius.  '?  When  I  recall  Diderot,"  wrote 
Meister,  "  the  immense  variety  of  his  ideas,  the  amazing  mul- 
tiplicity of  his  knowledge,  the  rapid  flight,  the  warmth,  the 
impetuous  tumult  of  his  imagination,  all  the  charm  and  all 
the  disorder  of  his  conversation,  I  venture  to  liken  his  cha- 
racter to  nature  herself,  exactly  as  he  used  to  conceive  her — 
rich,  fertile,  abounding  in  germs  of  every  sort,  gentle  and 
fierce,  simple  aud  majestic,  worthy  and  sublime,  but  without 
any  dominating  principle,  without  a  master  and  without  a 
God." 

Diderot  was  recklessly  prodigal  of  his  ideas,  flinging  them 
without  hesitation  or  reticence  among  his  friends.  He  was 

'  Diderot  and  the  EncyGlvpcedistsf\>y  John  Morley,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  39-40. 


DENIS   DIDEKOT.  35 

equally  generous  in  other  respects,  and  friendship  was  of  the 
essence  of  his  life.  "  He,"  wrote  Marmontel  in  his  Memoirs, 
"  he  who  was  one  of  the  most  enlightened  men  of  the  century, 
was  also  one  of  the  most  amiable;  and  in  everything  that, 
touched  moral  goodness,  when  he  spoke  of  it  freely,1 1  cannot 
express  the  charm  of  his  eloquence.  His  whole  soul  was  in 
his  eyes  and  on  his  lips;  never  did  a  countenance  better 
depict  the  goodness  of  the  heart." 

Chequered  as  Diderot's  life  had  been,  his  closing  years  were 
full  of  peace  and  comfort.  Superstition  was  mortally  wounded, 
the  Church  was  terrified,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  change 
the  philosophers  had  worked  for  was  at  band.  As  Mr. 
Morley  says,  "  the  press  literally  teemed  with  pamphlets, 
treatises,  poems,  histories,  all  shouting  from  the  house-tops 
open  destruction  to  beliefs  which  fifty  years  before  were 
actively  protected  against  so  much  as  a  whisper  in  the  closet. 
Every  form  of  literary  art  was  seized  and  turned  into  an 
instrument  in  the  remorseless  attack  on  L'Infdme."  Diderot 
rejoiced  at  all  this,  as  largely  the  fruit  of  his  own  labors. 
He  was  held  in  general  esteem  by  the  party  of  progress 
throughout  Europe.  Catherine  the  Great's  generosity  se- 
cured him  a  steady  income,  which  he  had  never  derived  from 
his  literary  labors.  His  townsmen  of  Laugres  placed  his 
bust  among  the  worthies  in  the  town  hall/  More  than  a 
hundred  years  later  a  national  statue  of  Diderot  was  un- 
veiled at  his  native  place,  and  the  balance  of  subscriptions 
was  devoted  to  publishing  a  popular  selection  of  his  works. 
Truly  did  this  great  Atheist  say,  looking  forward  to  the 
atoning  future,  "  Posterity  is  for  the  philosopher  what  the 
other  world  is  for  the  devout.1' 

In  the  spring  of  1784  Diderot  was  attacked  oy  what  he  felt 
was  his  last  illness.  Dropsy  set  in,  and  in  a  few  mouths  the 
end  came.  4-  fortnight  before  his  death  he  was  removed 
from  the  upper  floor  in  the  Rue  Taranne,  which  he  had  occu- 
pied for  thirty  years,  to  palatial  rooms  provided  for  him  by 
the  Czarina  in  the  Rue  de  Richelieu.  Growing  weaker  every 
day  he  -was  still  alert  in  mind.  • 

"He  did  all  he  could  to  cheer  the  people  around  him,  and 
amused  himself  and  them  %  arranging  his  pictures  and  his  books. 


36  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

In  the  evening,  to  the  last,  he  found  strength  to  converse  on  science 
and  philosophy  to  the  friends  who  were  eager  as  ever  for  the  last 
gleanings  of  his  prolific  intellect.  In  the  last  conversation  that 
his  daughter  heard  him  carry  on,  his  last  words  were  the  pregnant 
aphorism  that  the  first  step  towards  philosophy  is  incredulity. 

«  On  the  evening  of  the  30th  of  July,  1784  he  sat  down  to  table, 
"and  at  the  end  of  the  meal  took  an  apricot.  His  wife,  with  kind 
solicitude,  remonstrated.  Mais  quel  diable  d&  trial  veux-tu  que  celct 
me  fasse  ?  [How  the  deuce  can  that  hurt  me  ?]  he  said,  and  ate  the 
apricot.  Then  he  rested  his  elbow  on  the  table,  trifling  with  some 
sweetmeats.  His  wife  asked  him  a  question;  on  receiving  no 
answer,  she  looked  up  and  saw  that  he  was  dead.  He  had  died  as 
the  Greek  poets  say  that  men  died  in  the  golden  age — they  passed 
toway  as  if  mastered  "by  sleep"  * 

Grimm  gives  a  slightly  different  account  of  Diderot's  death, 
ommitting  the  apricot,  and  stating  that  his  words  to  his  wife 
were,  "It  is  long  since  I  have  eaten  with  so  much  relish."* 
With  respect  to  the  funeral,  Grimm  says  that  the  cure  of 
St.  Roch,  in  whose  parish  he  died,  had  scrupled  at  first  about 
burying  him,  on  account  of  his  sceptical  reputation  and  the 
doctrines  expounded  in  his  writings ;  but  the  priest's  scruples 
were  overcome,  partly  by  a  present  of  "  fifteen  or  eighteen 
thousand  livres." 

According  to  Mr.  Morley,  an  effort  was  made  to  convert 
Diderot,  or  at  least  to  wring  from  him  something  like  a 
retractation. 

«c  The  priest  of  St.  Sulpice,  the  centre  of  the  philosophic  quarter, 
came  to  visit  him  three  or  four  times  a  week,  hoping  to  achieve  at 
least  the  semblance  of  a  conversion.  Diderot  did  not  encourage 
conversation  on  theology,  but  when  pressed  he  did  not  refuse  it. 
One  day  when  they  found,  as  two  men  of  sense  will  always  find, 
that  they  had  ample  common  ground  in  matters  of  morality  and 
good  works,  the  priest  ventured  to  hint  that  an  exposition  of  such 
excellent  maxims,  accompanied  by  a  slight  retraction  of  Diderot's 
previous  works,  would  have  a  good  effect  on  the  world.  « I  dare 
say  it  would,  monsieur  le  cure,  but  confess  that  I  should  be  acting 
an  impudent  lie.'  And  no  word  of  retractation  was  ever  made."  l 

If  judging  men  by  the  company  tfcey  keep  is  a  safe  rule,  we 
need  have  no  doubt  as  to  the  sentiments  which  Diderot  enter- 
tained to  the  end.  Grimm  tells  us  that  on  the  morning  of  the 

8  Morley,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  259,  260. 

9  Quoted  from  the  Revue  Retrospective  in  Assezat's  complete 
edition  of  Diderot. 

1  Morley,  Vol.  II.,  p.  258. 


ETIENNE    DOLET.  37 

very  day  lie  died  "  lie  conversed  for  a  long  time  and  with  the 
greatest  freedom  with  his  .friend  the  Baron  D'Holbach,"  the 
famous  author  of  the  System  of  Nature^  compared  with  whom, 
says  Mr.  J£orley,  "  the  most,  eager  Nescient  or  Denier  to  be 
found  in  the  ranks  of  the  assailants  of  theology  in  our  own 
day  is  timorous  and  moderate."  These  men  were  the  two 
most  earnest  Atheists  of  their  generation.  Both  were  genial, 
benevolent,  and  conspicuously  generous.  D'Holbach  was 
learned,  eloquent,  and  trenchant;  and  Diderot,  in  Comte's 
opinion,  was  the  greatest  genius  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


ETIENNE   DOLET. 

Etienne  (Stephen)  Dolet,  the  great  French  printer,  whose 
name  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  Revival  of  Learning^ 
was  hanged  and  burnt  at  Lyons  on  August  3,  1546.  The 
Church  gave  him  the  martyr's  crown  on  his  thirty -seventh 
birthday.  He  was  a  heretic,  and  he  paid  the  penalty  exacted 
from  all  who  dared  to  think  for  themselves.  As  Mr.  Christie 
remarks,  he  was  "  neither  a  Protestant  nor  a  Catholic."  His 
contemporaries  were  fully  persuaded  of  his  Atheism 
"Philosophy  has  alone  the  right,"  says  the  great  French 
historian,  "  to  claim  on  its  side  the  illustrious  victim  of  .the 
Place  Maubert."2 

Dolet  got  his  first  taste  of  persecution  iii  1533,  when  he  was 
thrown  into  prison  for  denouncing  in  a  Latin  oration  the 
burning  alive  of  Jean  de  Cartuce  at  Toulouse.  During  the 
remaining  thirteen  years  of  his  life  he  was  five  times  im- 
prisoned, and  nearly  half  his  days  were  spent  in  confinement. 

Sentence  of  death  for  blasphemy  was  pronounced  on  Dolet 
in  tho  Cliambre  Ardente  at  Paris  on  August  2,  1546.  He.  was 
condemned  to  be  hung,  and  then  burnt  with  his  books  on  the 
Place  Maubert ;  and  his  widow  and  children  were  beggared 
by  the  confiscation  of  his  goods  to  the  king.  It  was  also 
ordered  that  he  should  be  put  to  the  torture"  before  his 
execution,  and  questioned  about  his  companions ;  and  "  if  the 

*  Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  Vol.  III.,  p.  343. 


88  INFIDEL  •  DEATH-BEDS. 

said  Dolet  shall  cause  any  scandal  or  utter  any  blasphemy, 
his  tongue  shall  be  cut  out,  and  he  shall  be  burnt  alive,"  The 
next  day  he  met  his  doom.  He  was  hung  first,  and  then  (for 
they  were  not  very  particular),  probably  while  he  still  breathed, 
the  faggots  were  lighted,  and  Dolet  and  his  books  were  con- 
sumed  in  the  flames.  It  is  said  that  instead  of  a  prayer  he 
uttered  a  pun  in  Latin — Non  dolet  ipse  Dolet,  sed  pia  turba 
dolet — Dolet  himself  does  not  grieve,  but  the  pious  crowd 
grieves.  Yet  the  confessor  who  attended  him  at  the  stake 
invented  the  miserable  falsehood  that  the  martyr  had 
acknowledged  his  errors.  "  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it,'* 
wrote  the  great  Erasmus,  "  it  is  the  usual  story  which  these 
people  invent  after  the  death  of  their  victims."  Dolet's  real 
sentiments  are  expressed  in  the  noble  cantique,  full  of  resigna- 
tion and  courage,  which  he  composed  in  prison  when  death 
was  imminent. 3  He  perished  like  a  hero,  as  beoame  the  friend 
of  Desperiers,  of  Marot,  and  of  Eabelais  ;  and  his  death,  no 
less  than  his  life,  inspires  M.  Boulmier  to  call  him  "  the 
Christ  of  Freethought." 

Authorities : 

Christie,   R.   C.,    Etienne   Dolet,    the  Martyr   of  the   Renaissance. 
(London,  1880.) 

Boulmier,  Joseph,  Etienne  Dolet,  Sa  Vie,  Ses  (Euvres,  Son  Martyre. 
(Paris,  1857.) 


3  Here  are  the  last  two  verses  in  the  fine -old  French. 

De  patience  ung  bon  cueur  jouyassant, 
Dessoubz  le  mal  jamais  n'est  flecnissant  j 
Se  desolant  ou  en  riens  gemissant, 
Tousjours  vaincqueur. 

Sus,  rnon  esprit,  monstres  vous  de  tel  cueur ; 
Vostre  asseurance  au  besoigng  soit  congneue : 
Tout  gentil  cueur,  tout  constant  bellicque  ur, 
Jusqu  'a  la  mort  sa  force  a  maintenue! 

Bough  translation: — "A  good  heart,  sustained  with  patience, 
never  bends  under  evil,  bewails  or  moans,  but  is  always  victor- 
Courage,  iny  soul,  and  show  such  a  heart;  let  your  confidence 
be  seen  in  trial :  every  noble  heart,  every  constant  warrior, 
maintains  his  fortitude  even  unto  death." 


GEOKGE   ELIOT.  39 


GEORGE-  ELIOT, 

Mary  Ann  Evans,  afterwards  Mrs.  Lewes,  and  finally  Mrs* 
Cross  was  one  of  the  greatest  writers  of  the  third  quarter  of 
this  century.  The  noble  works  of  fiction  she  published  under 
the  pseudonym  of  George  Eliot  are  known  to  all.  Her  earliest 
writing  was  done  for  the  Westminster  .Review,  a'  magazine  of 
marked  sceptical  tendency.  Her  inclination  to  Freethonght 
is  further  shown  by  her  translation  of  Strauss's  famous  Life 
of  Jesus  and  Feuerbach's  Essence  of  Christianity,  the  latter 
being  the  work  of  a  profound  Atheist.  George  Eliot  was,  to 
some  extent,  a  disciple  of  Comte,  and  reckoned  a  member  of 
the  Society  of  Positivist  s.  Mr.  Myers  tells  us  that  in  the  last 
conversation  he  had  with  her  \i  Cambridge,  they  talked  of 
God,  Immortality  and  Duty,  and  she  gravely  remarked  how 
hypothetical  was  the  first,  how  improbable  was  the  second , 
and  how  sternly  real  the  last.  Whenever  in  her  novels  she 
epeaks  in  the  first  person  she  breathes  the  same  sentiment. 
Her  biography  has  been  written  by  her  second  husband,  who 
Bays  that  "  her  long  illness  in  the  autumn  had  left  her  no 
power  to  rally.  She  passed  away  about  ten  o'clock  at  night 
on  the  22nd  of  December,  1880.  She  died,  as  she  would 
herself  have  chosen  to  die,  without  protracted  pain,  and  with 
every  faculty  brightly  vigorous."4  Her  body  lies  in  the  next 
grave  to  that  of  George  Henry  Lewes  at  Highgate  Cemetery  : 
her  spirit,  the  product  of  her  life,  has,  in  her  own  words, 
joined  "  the  choir  invisible,  whose  music  is  the  gladness  of 
the  world." 


FREDERICK  THE  GREAT. 

Frederick  the  Great,  the  finest  soldier  of  his  age,  the 
maker  of  Prussia,  and  therefore  the  founder  of  modern  Ger- 
many, was  born  in  January,  1712.  His  life -forms  the  theme 
of  Carlyle's  masterpiece.-  Notoriously  a  disbeliever  in 
Christianity,  as  his  writings  and  correspondence  attest,  he 
loved  to  surround  himself  with  Freethinkers,  the  most  con- 

«  Life  and  Letters  of  George  Eliot,  by  J.  W.  Cross,  Vol.  HI.,  p.  439 


40  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

spicuous  of^  whom  was  Voltaire.  When  the  great  French 
heretic  died,  Frederick  pronounced  his  eulogium  before  the 
Berlin  Academy,  denouncing  "the  imbecile  priests,"  and 
declaring  that  "  The  best  destiny  they  can  look  for  is  that 
they  and  their  vile  artifices  will  remain  forever  buried  in  the 
darkness  of  oblivion,  while  the  fame  of  Voltaire  will  increase 
from  age  to  age,  and  transmit  his  name  to  immortality;" 

When  the  old  king  was  on  his  death-bed,  One  of  his  subjects, 
solicitous  about  his  immortal  soul,  sent  him  a  letter  full  of 
pious  advice.  "Let  this,"  he  said,  "  be  answered  civilly;  the 
intention  of  the  writer  is  good."  Shortly  after,  on  August 
17,  1786,  Frederick  died  in  his  own  fashion.  Carlyle  says : 

«  For  tbe  most  part  he  was  unconscious,  never  more  than  half 
conscious.  •  As  the  wall  clock  above  his  head  struck  eleven,  he 
asked  :  «  What  o'clock  ? '  <  Eleven,'  answered  they.  « At  four,' 
murmured  he,  {I  will  arise.'  One  of  his  dogs  sat  on  its  stool  near 
,him ;  about  midnight  he  noticed  it  shivering  for  cold :  « Throw  a 
quilt  over  it,*  said  or  beckoned  Jie ;  that,  I  think,  was  his  last 
completely  conscious  utterance.  Afterwards,  in  a  severe  choking 
fit,  getting  at  J^ast  rid  of  the  phlegm,  he  said,  (La^7nontagne  est 
passd,  rious  irons  mieita?— i"We  are  on  the  hill,  we  shall  go  better 
now/  " 5 

Better  it  was.  The  pain  was  over,  and  the  brave  old  king, 
who  had  wrestled  with  all  Europe  and  thrown  it,  succumbed 
quietly  to  the  inevitable  defeat  which  awaits  us  all. 


LEON    GAMSETFTA. 

Gairibetta  was  the  greatest  French  orator  and  statesman 
of  his  age.  He  was  one  of  those  splendid  and  potent  figures 
who  redeem  nations  from  commonplace.  To  him,  morerthan 
to  any  other  man,  the  present  Republic  owes  its  existence. 
He  played  deeply  for  it  in  the  great  game  of  life  #nd  death 
after  Sedan,  and  by  his  titanic  organisation  of  the  national 
defence  he  made  it  impossible  for  JLouis  Napoleon  io  reseat 
himself  on  the  throne  with  the  aid  of  German  bayonets. 
Again,  in  1877,  he  saved  the  Kepublic  he  loved  go  well  from 
the  monarchial  conspirators.  He  defeated  their  base  attempt 
to  subvert  a  nation's  liberties,  but  the  struggle  sapped  his 

*  Frederick  tUe  Great,  VoL  VI.,  jp.  694  j  edihon,;i369. 


LEON   GAMBETTA.  41 

enormous  vitality,  which  had  already  been  impaired  by  the 
terrible  labors  of  his  Dictatorship,  He  died  at  the  early 
age  of  forty-four,  having  exhausted  his  strength  in'  fighting 
for  freedom.  Scarcely  a  dark  thread  was  left  in  the  leonine 
mane  of  black  hair,  and  the  beard  matched  the  whiteness  of 
his  shroud. 

France  mourned  like  one  man  at  the  hero's  death.  The 
people  gave  him  a  funeral  that  eclipsed  the  obsequies  of  kings. 
He  was  carried  to  his  grave  by  a  million  citizens.  Yet  in  the 
whole  of  that  vast  throng,  as  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  remarked, 
*'  there  was  no  emblenrof  Christ,  no  priest  of  God,  not  one 
mutter  of  heaven,  no  hollow  appeal  to  the  mockery  of  the 
resurrection,  no  thought  but  for  the  great  human  loss  and 
human  sorrow.  It  was  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Europe 
that  a  foremost  man  had  been  laid  to  rest  by  a  nation  in  grief, 
without  priest  or  church,  prayer  or  hymn."0 

Like  almost  every  eminent  Republican,  Gambetta  was  a 
Freethinker. '  As  Mr.  Frederic  Harrison  says,  "  he  systemati- 
cally and  formally  repudiated  any  kind  of  acceptance  of 
theology."  During  his  lifetime  he  never  entered  a  church, 
even  when  attending  a  marriage  or  a  funeral,  but  stopped 
short  at  the  door,  and  let  who  would  go  inside  and  listen,  to 
the  mummery  of  the  priest.  In  his  own  expressive  words, 
he  declined  to  be  "  rocked  asleep  by  the  myths  of  childish 
religions."  He  professed  himself  an  admirer  and  a  disciple 
of  Voltaire — Vadmirateur  et  le  disciple  de  Voltaire.  Every 
member  of  his  ministry  was  a  Freethinker,  and  one  of  them, 
the  eminent  scientist  Paul  Bert,  a  militant  Atheist.  Speaking 
at  a  public  meeting  not  long  before  his  death,  Gambetta 
called  Comte  the  greatest  thinker  of  this  century  ;  that  Comte 
who  proposed  to  "  reorganise  society,  without  God  and  with- 
out king,  by  the  systematic  cultus  of  humanity." 

"When  John  Stuart  Mill  died,  a  Christian  journal,  which 
died  itself  a  few  weeks  after,  declared  he  had  gone  to  hell, 
and  wished  all  his  friends  and  disciples  would  follow  him. 
Several  pious  prints  expressed  similar  sentiments  with  regard 

6  Mr.  Harrison's  words  were  thus  reported  in  the  newspapers. 
The  passage  appears  slightly,  though  not  materially  altered,  in  tb» 
Contemporary  Review  for  March,  1883,  p.  323.' 


42  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

to  Gambetta.  ^Passing  by  the  English  papers,  let  us  look  at  a 
few.  French  ones.  The  Due  de  Broglie's  organ,  naturally 
anxious  to  insult  the  statesman  who  had  so  signally  beaten 
him,  said  that  "  he  died  suddenly  after  hurling  defiance  at 
God."  The  Pays,  edited  by  that  pious  bully,  Paul  de  Gas- 
sagnac,  said — "  He  dies,  poisoned  by  his  own  blood.  He  set 
himself  up  against  God.  He  has  fallen.  It  is  fearful.  But 
it  is  just."  The  Catholic  Vnivers  said,  "  While  he  was 
recruiting  his  strength  and  meditating  fresh  assaults  upon 
the  Church,  and  promising  himself  victory,  the  divine  Son  of 
the  Carpenter  was  preparing  his  coffin." 

These  tasteful  exhibitions  of  Christian  charity  show  that 
Gambetta  lived  and  died  a  Freethinker.  Tet  the  sillier  sort 
of  Christians  have  not  scrupled  to  insinuate  and  even  argue, 
that  he  was  secretly  a  believer.  One  asinine  priest,  M 
Feuillet  des  Conches,  formerly  Vicar  of  Notre  Dame  des 
Vicioires,  and  then  honorary  Chamberlain  to  the  Pope,  stated 
JLQ  the  London  Times  that,  about  twko  years  before  his  death* 
Gambetta  came  to  his  church  with  a  brace  of  big  wax  tapers 
which  he  offered  in  memory  of  .his  mother.  He  also  added 
that  the  great  orator  knelt  before  the  Virgin,  dipped  hisjingejr 
in  holy  water,  and  made  the  sign  of  the  cross.  Was  there- 
ever  a  more  absurd  story  ?  jGambetta  was  a  remarkable- 
looking  man,  and  extremely  well  known.  He  could  not  have 
entered  a  church  unobserved,  and  had  he  done  so,  the  story 
would  have  gone  round  Paris  the  next  day.  Yet  nobody 
lieard  of  it  till?  after  his  death.  Either  the  priest  mistook 
some  portly  dark  man  for  Gambetta,  or  he  was  guilty  of  a 
pious  frau'd. 

According  to  another  '  story,  Gambetta  said  '*  I  am  lost  " 
when  the  doctors  told  him  he  could  not  recover.  But  tho 
phrase  Je  suis  perdu  has  no  theological  significance.  Nothing 
is  more  misleading  than  a  literal  translation.  Gambetta 
simply  meant  "It  is  all  over  then."  This  monstrous  per- 
version of  a  simple  phrase  could  only  have  arisen  from  sheer 
tonlice.or  gross  ignorance  of  Fi'ench. 

White  lying-ion  his  death-jbed  Gambetta  listened  toi-Ttabe- 
lais,  Moliere,  and,  other  favorite  but  not  verjr  pious*  anchors, 
read  aloud  by  a  young  student  who  adored  "him,. 


GABIBALDI.  43 

last  words,  as  recorded  in  the  .Times,  were  these— "  Well,  I 
have  suffered  so  much,  it  will  be  a  deliverance."  The  words 
are  calm,  collected,  and  truthful.  There  is  no  rant  and  no 
quailing.  It  is  the  natural  language  of  a  strong  man 
confronting  Death  after  long  agony.  Shortly  after  he  breathed 
his  last.  The  deliverance  had  come.  Still  lay  the  mighty 
heart  and  the  fertile  brain  that  had  spent  themselves  for 
France,  and  the  silence  was  only  broken  by  the  sobs  of  dear 
friends  who  would  have  died  to  save  him. '  No  priest  ad- 
ministered "  the  consolations  of  religion,"  and  he  expressly 
ordered  that  he  should  be  buried  without  religious  rites.  His 
great  heroic  genius  was  superior  to  the  creeds,  seeing  through 
them  and  over  them.  He  lived  and  died  a  Freethinker,  like 
nearly  all  the  great  men  since  Mirabeau  and  Dantou  who 
have  built  up  the  freedom  and  glory  of  France. 


GAKIBALDI. 

Giuseppe  Garibaldi's  name  is  a  household  word  in  every 
civilised  country.  His  romantic  life  and  superb  achievements 
are  too  well  known  to  need  any  recital  in  these  pages.  The 
Lion  of  Caprera  found  the  priests  the  greatest  enemies  of  his 
beloved  Italy,  and  he  hated  them  accordingly.  "  The  priest," 
he  says  in  the  preface  to  his  Memoirst  "  the  priest  is  the 
personification  of  falsehood,  the  liar  is  a  thief,  and  the  thief  an 
assassin."7  His  English  biographer,  Theodore  Bent,  admits 
that  in  his  old  age  he  grew  more  and  more  sceptical.  "  One 
of  his  laconic  letters  of  1880,"  he  says,  "  illustrates  this.  It 
was  as  follows  : — '  Dear  friends, — Man  has  created  God,  not 
God  man.  Yours  ever,  Garibaldi.'  " 

We  have  no  account  of  Garibaldi's  last  moments,  but  he 
died  daily  in  his  crippled  and  helpless  old  age,  and  his  cheer- 
ful fortitude  was  known  to  all.  He  desired  his  body  to  be 
cremated,  and  gave  strict  orders  that  no  priest  should  officiate 
at  his  funeral.  He  also  had  his  sarcophagus  built  at  Caprera, 
but  the  family  yielded  to  the  wish  of  the  government,  and  he 
was  buried  at  Rome. 

'  Garibaldi,  Memorie  Autobiogpafiche  p.  2. 


44  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 


ISAAC   GENDKE. 

The  controversy  over  the  death  of  this  Swiss  Freethinker 
was  summarised  in  the  London  Echo  of  July  29,  1881. 

"  A  second  case  of  death-bed  conversion  of  an  eminent  Liberal  to 
Homan  Catholicism,  suggested  probably  by  that  of  the  great  French 
philologist  Littre",  has  passed  the  round  of  the  Swiss  papers.  A  few 
days  ago  the  veteran  leader  of  the.  Freiburg  Liberals,  M.  Isaac 
Gendre,  died.  The  Ami  d/u,  Pen/pie,  the  organ  of  the  Freiburg 
Ultramontanes,  immediately  set  afloat  the  sensational  news  that 
when  M.  G-endre  found  that  his  last  hour  was  approaching,  he  sent, 
his  brother  to  fetch  a  priest  in  order  that  the  last  sacraments 
mig;ht  be  administered  to  him,  and  the  evil  which  he  had  done 
during  his  life  by  his  persistent  Liberalism  might  be  atoned  by  his 
repentance  at  the  eleventh  hour.  .  This  brother,  M.  Alexandre 
Gendre,  now-  writes  to  the  paper  stating  that  there  is  not  one  word 
of  truth  in  this  story.  What  possible  benefit  can  any  Church 
derive  from  the  invention  of  such  tales?  Doubtless  there  is  a 
credulous  residuum  which  believes  that  there  must  be  'some 
truth '  in  anything  which  has  once  appeared  in  print." 

It  might  be  added  that  many  people  readily  believe  what 
pleases  them,  and  that  a  lie  which  has  a  good  start  is  very 
hard  to  run  down. 


EDWARD   GIBBON. 

Edward  Gibbon,  the  greatest  of  modern  historians,  was 
born  •  at  Putney,  near  London,  on  April  27,  1737.  His 
monumental  work,  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
which  Carlyle  called  "  the  splendid  bridge  from  the  old  world 
to  the  new,"  is' universally  known  and  admired.  To  have 
your  na.me  mentioned  by  Gibbon,  said  Thackeray,  is  like 
having  it  written  on  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  which  is  seen  by 
pilgrims  from  all  paints  of  the  earth.  Twenty  years  of  his 
life  were  devoted  to  his  colossal  History,  which  incidentally 
conveys  his  opinion  of  many  problems.  His  views  on  Chris- 
tianity are  indicated  in  his  famous  fifteenth  chapter,  which  is 
a  masterpiece  of  grave  and  temperate  irony.  When  Gibbon 
wrote  that  "  it  was  not  in  this  world  that  the  primitive 
Christians  were  desirous  of  making  themselves  either  agree- 


EDWARD   GIBBON.  45 

able  or  useful,"  every  sensible  reader  understood  bis  meaning. 
The  polite  sneer  rankled  in  the  breasts  of  the  clergy,  who 
replied  with  declamation  and  insult.  Their  answers,  however, 
are  forgotten,  while  his  merciless  sarcasms  live  on,  and  help 
to  undermine  the  Church  in  every  fresh  generation. 

Gibbon  did-  not  long  .survive  the  completion  of  his  great 
wOrk.  The  last  volumes  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  were  published 
on  May  8,  1788,  and  lie  died  on  January  14th,  1794.  -His 
malady  was  dropsy.  After  being  twice  tapped  in  November, 
he  removed  to  the  house  of  his'  devoted  friend,  Lord  Sheffield, 
A  week  before  he  expired  he  was  obliged  for  the  Bake  of  the 
highest  medical  attendance,  to  return,  to  Jiis  lodgings  in 
St.  James's-  Street,  Lon'doii.  The  following  account  of  his  last 
moments  was  written  by  Lord  Sheffield  : 

"During  the  evening  he  complained  much  of  his  stomach,  and 
of  a  feeling  of  nausea.  Soon  after  nine  lie  took  his  opium  draught 
and  went  to  bed.  About  ten  he  complained  of  much  pain,  and 
desired  that  warm  napkins  might  be  applied  to  his  stomach.  He 
almost  incessantly  expressed  a  sense  of  pain  till  about  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  when  he  said  he  found  his  stomach  much  easier. 
About  seven  the  servant  asked  whether  he  should  send  for  Mr. 
Farquhar  [the  doctor].  He  answered,  No ;  that  he  was  as  well 
as  the  day  before.  At  about  half -past  eight  he  got  out  of  bed,  and 
said  he  was  'plus  adroit'  than  he  had  been  for  three  months  past, 
and  got  into  bed  again  without  assistance,  better  than  usual. 
About  nine  he  said  he  would  rise.  The  servant,  however,  per- 
suaded  him  to  remain  in  bed  till  Mr.  Farquhar,  who  was  expected 
at  eleven,  should  come.  Till  about  that  hour  he  spoke  with  great 
facility.  Mr.  Farquhar  came  at  the  time  appointed,  and  he  was 
then  visibly  dying.  When  the  valet -de -chamlre  returned,  after 
attending  Mr.  Farquhar  out  of  the  room,  Mr.  Gibbon  said,  "  Pour- 
quoi  est  ce  que  vous  me  quittez  ?  '  [Why  do  you  leave  me  ?]  This 
was  about  half- past  eleven.  At  twelve  o'clock  h.e  drank  some 
brandy  and  water  from  a  teapot,  and  desired  his  favorite  servant 
to  stay  with  him.  These  were  the  last  words  he  pronounced  arti- 
culately. To  the  last  he  preserved  his  senses ;  and  when  he  could 
no  longer  speak,  his  servant  having  asked  a  question,  he  made  a 
sign  to  show  that  he  understood  hi  m.  He  was  quite  tranquil,  and 
did  not  stir,  his  eyes  half  shut.  About  a  quarter  before  one  he 
ceased  to  breathe.  The  valet-de-chambre  observed  that  he  did  not,  at 
any  time,  evince  the  least  sign  of  alarm  or  apprehension  of  death."—* 
Last  Days  of  Gi&btm,  in  Milman's  edition  of  Gibbon,  vol.  i.  (Intro- 
duction). 

Mr.  James  Cotter  Morison,  in  his  admirable  monograph  on 
Gibbon,  which  forms  a  volume  of  Macmillan's  "  English  Men 


46  INFIDEL    DEATH-BEDS. 

of  Letters  "  series,  quotes  the  whole  of  this  passage  from 
Lord  Sheffield  with  the  exception  of  the  last  sentence.  In 
onr  opinion  the  words  we  have  italicised  are  tjie  most 
important  in  the  extract,  and  should  not  have  been  withheld. 


WILLIAM  GODWIN. 

William  Godwin,  the  author  of  Political  Justice  and  the 
father-in-law  of  Shelley,  was  born  on  March  3,1756,  and  he  died 
on  April  7, 1836.  Only  a  few  days  before  his  death  he  wrote  to 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Shelley,  as  follows  :— 

«I  leave  behind  me  a  manuscript  in  a  considerable  state  of 
forwardness  for  the  press,  entitled,  "  The  Genius  of  Christianity 
Unveiled :  in  a  Series  of  Essays."  .,  .  .  I  am  most  unwilling  that 
this,  the  concluding  work  of  a  long  life,  and  written,  as  I  believe, 
in  the  full  maturity  of  my  understanding,  should  be  consigned  to 
oblivion.  It  has  been  the  main  object  of  -my  life,  since  I  attained 
to  years  of  discretion,  to  do  my  part  to  free  the  human  mind  from 
slavery.  I  adjure  you,  therefore,  or  whpmsoever  else  into  whose 
hands  these  papers  may  fall,  not  to  allow  them  to  be  consigned  to 
oblivion." 

Mrs.  Shelley  seems  to  have  disregarded  this  solemn  adjura- 
tion, for  the  work  was  not  published  till  1873,  when  it  was 
issued  by  Mr.  0.  Kegan  Paul,  to  whose  Life  of  William  God- 
win we  are  indebted. 


GOETHE. 

The  greatest  of  German  poets  died  at  a  ripe  old  age  on 
March  22,  1832.  He  was  a  Pantheist  after  the  manner  of 
Spinoza,  and  his  countrymen  called  him  the  "  great  pagan." 
In  one  of  his  epigrams  he  expresses  hatred  of  four  things — 
garlic,  onions,  bugs,  and  the  cross.  Heine,  in  his  De  VAller 
m>igne,  notices  Goethe's  "  vigorous  heathen  nature,"  and  his 
'•  militant  antipathy  to  Christianity.'*  His  English  biographer 
thus  describes  his  last  moments  : 

"His  speech  was  becoming  less  and  less  distinct.  The  last  words 
audible  were:  More  light!  The  final  darkness  grew  apace,  and  he 
whose  eternal  longing  had  been  for  more  Light,  gave  a  parting 
cry  for  it,  as  he  was  passing  under  the  shadow  of  death.  He  con- 


GEOEGE  GROTE.  47 

tinned  to  express  himself  by  signs,  drawing  letters  with  his  fore- 
finger in  the  air,  while  he  had  strength,  and  finallj*  as  life  ebbed 
away  drawing  figures  slowly  on  the  shawl  which  covered  his  legs. 
At  half-past  twelve  he  composed  himself  in  the  corner  of  the 
•chair.  The  watcher  placed  a  finger  on  her  lips  to  intimate  that 
he  was  asleep.  If  sleep  it  was,  it  was  a  sleep  in  which  a  great  life 
glided  from  the  world."  8 

Let  us  add  that  infinite  nonsense,  from  which  even  Lewes 
*was  obviously  not  free,  has  been  talked  and  written  about 
Gothe's  cry  "  More  light."  His  meaning  was  of  course 
purely  physical.  The  eyesight  naturally  fails  in  death,  all 
things  grow  dim,  and  the  demand  for  '*  more  light "  is 
common  enough  at  such  times. 


GEOEGE    GEOTE. 

George  Grote,  the  author  of  our  classic  History  of  Greece, 
was  born  on  November  17, 1794  He  was  a  disciple  of  Beutham 
and  a  confirmed  Atheist.  His  death,  which  occurred  on  June 
18,  1871,  was  full  of  serenity.  "  Early  in  the  month  of  June," 
writes  Mrs.  Grote,  "  a  marked  change  supervened,  and  at  the 
end  of  three  weeks  his  honorable,  virtuous,  and  laborious 
course  was  closed  by  a  tranquil  and  painless  death.1'11 

The  Eev.  Peter  Anton,  in  his  Masters  of  History,  obviously 
takes  his  account  of  Grote's  death  from  this  source,  but  it  is 
worth  noticing  that  he  enhances,  instead  of  weakening,  the 
panegyric.  "  The  great  historian,"  he  says,  "  passed  away 
tranquilly  and  without  pain ;  and  thus  was  brought  to  a  close 
a  career  singularly  devoted,  conscientious,  and  laborious,  a 
life  rich  in  virtue  and  honor  and  the  esteem  of  the  wise  and 
the  good."  Three  centuries  ago  Grote  might  have  been  burnt 
to  death;  but  the  custodians  of  Westminster  Abbey  are  now 
anxious  to  enrich  their  precincts  with  celebrities,  and  the 
Atheist  historian  is  interred  there  with  Freethinkers  like 
Ephraim  Chambers,  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  and  Charles  Darwin. 

8  Life  of  Goethe,  by  G.  H.  Lewes,  p.  559. 
9  Personal  Life  of  .George  Grote.    By  Mrs.  Grote,  p.  330. 


48  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 


HELVETIUS. 

Helvetius,  the  French  Philosopher,  was  born  in  1715.  His 
death  took  place  on  December  26,  1771.  By  accident  or 
negligence,  his  famous  treatise,  L'Esprit,  passed  the  censor- 
ship ;  but,  on  its  true  character  being  recognised,  the  censor 
was  cashiered,  and  the  author  dismissed  from  an  honorary 
post  in  the  Queen's  'household.  The  indictment,  says  Mr. 
Morley,  described  the  work  as  a  "  collection  into  one  coyer  of 
everything  that  impiety  could  imagine,  calculated  to 
engender  hatred  'against  Christianity  and  Catholicism."1 
'  The  book  was  publicly  burnt,  and  the  same  fire  consumed 
Yoitaire's  poem  on  Natural  Eeligion.  Here  is  a  passage 
which  may  help  to  explain  its  fate. 

"  It  is  fanaticism  that  puts  arms  into  the  hands  of  Christian 
princes j  it  orders  Catholics  to  massacre  heretics;  it  "brings  out 
upon  the  earth  again  those  tortures  that  were  invented  by  such 
monsters  as  Phalaris,  as  Busiris,  as  Nero ;  in  Spain  it  piles  and 
lights  up  the  fires  of  the  Inquisition,  while  the  pious  Spaniards 
leave  their  ports  and  sail  across  distant  seas,  to  plant  the  Cross 
and  spread  desolation  in  America.  Turn  your  eyes  to  north  or 
south,  to  east  or  west  j  on  every  side  you  see  the  consecrated  knife 
of  Beligion  raised  against  the  breasts  of  women,  of  children,  of 
old  men,  and  the  earth  all  smoking  with  the  blood  of  victims  im- 
molated to  false  gods  or  the  Supreme  Being,  and  presenting  one 
vast,  sickening,  horrible  charnel-house  of  intolerance." 

Mannontel  describes  Helvetius  as  "liberal,  generous, 
unostentatious,  and  benevolent."  His  death  was  mourned 
by  a  wide  circle  of  friends  and  dependants.  ••  Day  by  day,1' 
says  Condorcet,  "  he  felt  his  strength  failing.  An  attack  of 
gout,  which  flew  to  the  head  and  chest,  deprived  him  at  first 
of  consciousness,  and  soon  of  life."  2 


HENEY  HETHEBINGTOtf. 

Henry  Hetherington,  one  of  the  heroes  of  "  the  free  press," 
was  born  at  Compton  Street,  Soho,  London,   in   1792.*    He 

>  Diderot,  Vol.  II.,  p.  124. 
*  Essay  by  Condorcet,  prefixed  to  the  (Eui-resot  Helvetius  (1784). 


HENRY   HETHEBINGTON.  49 

very  early  became  an  ardent  reformer.  In  1830  tlie  Gov- 
ernment obtained  three  convictions  against  him  for  publishing 
the  Poor  Man9 8  Guardian,  and  he  was  lodged  for  six  months 
in  Clerkenwell  gaol.  -  At  the  end  of  1832  he  was  again  im- 
prisoned there  for  six  .  months,  his  treatment  being  most 
cruel.  An  opening,  called  a  window,  but  without  a  pane  of 
glass,  let  in  the  rain  and  snow  by  day  and  night.  In  1841 
he  was  a  third  time  incarcerated  in  the  Queen's  Bench  prison 
for  four  mouths.  This  time  his  crime  was  "  blasphemy,"  in 
other  words,  publishing  Haslam's  Letters  to  the  Clergy.  Ho 
died  on  August  24,  1849,  in  his  fifty- seventh  year,  leaving 
behind  him  his  "  Last  Will  and  Testament,"  from  which  we 
take  the  following  extracts  : 

"  As  life  is  uncertain,  it  behoves  every  one  to  make  preparations 
for  death;  I  deem  it  therefore  a  duty  incumbent  on  me,  ere  I  quit 
this  life,  to  express  in  writing,  for  the  satisfaction  and  guidance  of 
esteemed  friends^  my  feelings  and  opinions  in  reference  to  our 
common  principles.  I  adopt  this  course  that  no  mistake  or  mis- 
apprehension may  arise  through  the  false  reports  of  those  who 
officiously  and  obtrusively  obtain  access  to  the  death-beds  of 
avowed  infidels  to  priestcraft  and  superstition ;  and  who,  by  their 
annexing  importunities,  labor  to  extort  from  an  opponent,  whose 
intellect  is  already  worn  out  and  subdued  by  protracted  physical 
suffering,  some  trifling  admission,  that  they  may  blazon  it  forth 
to  the  world  as  a  Death-bed  Confession,  and  a  triumph  of  Chris- 
tianity over  infidelity. 

« In  the  first  place,  then,  I  calmly  and  deliberately  declare  that 
I  do  not  believe  in  the  popular  notion  of  the  existence  of  an  Al- 
mighty, AU-~Wise  and  Benevolent  God— possessing  intelligence, 
and  conscious  of  his  own  operations;  because  these  attributes 
involve  such  a  mass  of  absurdities  and  contradictions,  so  much 
cruelty  and  injustice  on  his  part  to  the  poor  and  destitute  portion 
of  his  creatures — that,  in  my  opinion,  no  rational  reflecting  mind 
can,  after  disinterested  investigation,  give  credence  to  the  existence 
of  such  a  Being.  2nd.  I  believe  death  to  be  an  eternal  sleep —that 
I  shall  never  live  again  in  this  world,  or  another,  with  a  conscious- 
ness that  I  am  the  same  identical  person  that  once  lived,  performed 
the  duties,  and  exercised  the  functions  of  a  human  being.  3rd.  I 
consider  priestcraft  and  superstition  the  greatest  obstacle  to  human 
improvement  and  happiness.  Daring  my  life  I  have,  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  sincerely  and  strenuously  exposed  and  opposed  them, 
and  die  with  a  firm  conviction  that  Truth,  Justice,  and  Liberty 
will  never  be  permanently  established  on  earth  till  every  vestige 
of  priestcraft  and  superstition  shall  be  utterly  destroyed.  4th.  I 
have  ever  considered  that  the  only  religion  useful  to  man  consists 
exclusively  of  the  practice  of  moralit3%  and  in  the  mutual  inter- 

0 


50  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

change  of  kind  actions.  In  such  a  religion  there  is  no  room  for 
priests— and  when  I  see  them  interfering  at  our  births,  marriages 
and  deaths,  pretending  to  conduct  us  safely  through  this  state  of 
being  to  another  and  happier  world,  any  disinterested  person  of 
the  least  shrewdness  and  discernment  must  perceive  that  their 
sole  aim  is  to  stultify  the  minds  of  the  people  by  their  incompre- 
hensible doctrines,  that  they  may  the  more  effectually  fleece  the 
poor  deluded  sheep  who  listen  to  their  empty  babblings  and  mysti- 
fications. 5th.  As  I  have  lived  so  I  die,  a  determined  opponent  to 
their  nefarious  and  plundering  system.  I  wish  my  friends,  there- 
fore, to  deposit  my  remains  in  unconsecrated  ground,  and  trust 
they  will  allow  no  priest,  or  clergyman  of  any  denomination,  to 
interfere  in  any  way  whatever  at  my  funeral.  My  earnest  desire 
is,  that  no  relation  or  friend  shall  wear  black  or  any  kind  of 
mourning,  as  I  consider  it  contrary  to  our  rational  principles  to 
indicate  respect  for  a  departed  friend  by  complying  with  a  hypro- 
critical  custom.  6th.  I  wish  those  who  respect  me,  and  who  have 
labored  in  our  common  cause,  to  attend  my  remains  to  their  last 
resting-place,  not  so  much  in  consideration  of  the  individual,  as  to 
do  honor  to  our  just,  benevolent  and  rational  principles.  I  hope 
all  true  nationalists  wfll  leave  pompous  displays  to  the  tools  of 
priestcraft  and  superstition." 

Hetberington  wrote  this  Testament  nearly  two  years  before 
his  death,  but  he  signed  it  with  a  firm  hand  three  days  before 
he  breathed  bis  last,  in  the  presence  of  Thomas  Cooper,  who 
left  it  at  the  Eeasoner  office  for  "  the  inspection  of  the  curious 
or  sceptical."  Thomas  Cooper  is  now  a  Christian,  but  he 
cannot  repudiate  what  he  printed  at  the  time,  or  destroy  his 
**  personal  testimony,"  as  he  called  it,  to  the  consistency  with 
which  Hetberington  died  in  the  principles  of  Freethought. 


THOMAS  HOBBES. 

The  philosopher  of  Malmesbury,  as  he  is  often  called,  was 
one  of  the  clearest  and  boldest  thinkers  that  ever  lived.  Hia 
theological  proclivities  are  well  expressed  in  his  witty  aphorism 
that  superstition  is  religion  out  of  fashion,  and  religion  super- 
stition in  fashion.  Although  a  courageous  thinker,  Hobbes 
was  physically  timid.  This  fact  is  explained  by  the  circum- 
tances  of  his  birth.  In  the  spring  of  1588  all  England  was 
alarmed  at  the  news  that  the  mighty  Spanish  Armada  had 
set  sail  for  the  purpose  of  deposing  Queen  Elizabeth,  bringing 
the  country  under  a  foreign  yoke,  and  re-establishing  the 


THOMAS   HOBBES  51 

power  of  the  papacy.  In  sheer  fright,  the  wife  of  the  vicar 
of  Westport,  now  part  of  Malmesbury,  gave  premature  birth 
to  her  second  son  on  Good  Friday,  the  5th  of  April.  This 
seven  months'  child  used  to  say,  in  later  life,  that  his 
mother  brought  forth  himself  and  a  twin  brother  Fear.  He 
was  delicate  and  nervous  all  his  days.  Yet  through  strict 
temperance  he  reached  the  great  age  of  ninety-one,  dying 
on  the  4th  of  December,  1679. 

This  parson's  son  was  destined  to  be  hated  by  the  clergy 
for  his  heresy.  The  Great  Fire  of  1666,  following  the  Great 
Plague  of  the  previous  year,  excited  popular  superstition,  and 
to  appease  the  wrath  of  God,  a  new  Bill  was  intoduced  in 
Parliament  against  Atheism  and  profaneness.  The  Committee 
to  which  the  Bill  was  entrusted  were  empowered  to  "  receive 
information  touching  "  heretical  books,  and  Hobbes's  Levia- 
than was  mentioned  "  in  particular."  The  old  philosopher, 
then  verging  on  eighty,  was  naturally  alarmed.  Bold  as  he 
was  in  thought,  his  inherited  physical  timidity  shrank  from 
the  prospect,  of  the  prison,  the  scaffold,  or  the  stake.  He 
made  a  show  of  conformity,  and  according  to  Bishop  Kennet, 
who  is  not  an  irreproachable  witness,  he  partook  of  the 
sacrament.  It  was  said  by  some,  however,  that  he  acted 
thus  in  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  the  Devonshire  family, 
who  were  his  protectors  and  whose  private  chapel  he  attended* 
A  noticeable  fact  was  that  he  always  went  out  before  the 
sermon,  and  when  asked  his  reason,  he  answered  that  "  they 
could  teach  him  nothing  but  what  he  knew."  He  spoke  of 
the  chaplain,  Dr.  Jasper  Mayne,  as  "  a  very  silly  fellow." 

Hated  by  the  clergy,  and  especially  by  the  bishops ;  owing 
his  liberty  and  perhaps  his  life  to  powerful  patrons ;  fearing 
that  some  fanatic  might  take  the  parsons'  hints  and  play  the 
part  of  an  assassin;  Hobbes  is  said  to  have  kept  a  lighted 
candle  in  his  bedroom.  The  fact,  if  it  be  such,  is  not  men- 
tioned in  Professor  Groom  Eobert son's  exhaustive  biography.1 
It  is  perhaps  a  bit  of  pious  gossip.  But  were  the  story 
authentic,  it  would  not  show  that  Hobbes  had  any  super- 

3  Hotoes.    By  G-eor^e  Croorn  Robertson.    Blackwood  and  Sons 
1886. 


52  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

natural  fears.  He  was  more  apprehensive  of  assassins  than 
of  ghosts  and  devils.  Being  very  old,  too,  and  his  life  pre- 
carious, he  might  well  desire  a  light  in  his  bedroom  in  case  of 
accident  or  sudden  sickness.  The  etory  is  too  trivial  to  de- 
serve further  notice.  Orthodoxy-  must  fee  hard  pushed  to 
dilate  on  so  simple  a  thing  as  this. 

;,.  According  to  one  Christian  tract,  which  is  scarcely  worth 
mention,  although  .extensively  circulated,  Hobbes  when 
dying  said  "he  was  about -to  take,  a  leap  in  the  dark." 
Every  dying  man  might  say  the  same  with  equal  truth.  Yet 
the  story  seems  fictitious.  I  can  discover  no  trace  of  it  in 
any  early  authority. 

Hobbes  does  not  appear  to  have  troubled  himself  about 
death.  Bishop  Kennet  relates  that  only  "  the  winter  before 
he.  died  he  made  a  warm  greatcoat,  which  he  said  must  last 
him  three  years,  and  then  he  would  have  such  another.*' 
Even  so  late  as  August,  1676,  four  months  before  his  decease, 
he  was  "  writing  somewhat "  for  his  publisher  to  "  print  in 
English."  About  the  middle  of  October  he  had  an  attack  of 
stranguary,  and  "Wood  and  Kennet  both  have  it  that,  on 
hearing  the  trouble  was  past  cure,  he  exclaimed,  '  I  shall  be 
glad  then  to  find  a  hole  to  creep  out  of  the  world  at.' "  * 
This  story  was  picked  up  thirty  years  after  Hobbes's  death, 
and  is  probably  apocryphal.  If  the  philosopher  said  anything 
of  the  kind,  he  doubtless  meant  that,  being  very  old,  and 
without  wife,  child,  or  relative  to  care  for  him,  he  would* be 
glad  to  find  a  shelter  for  his  last  moments,  and  to  expire  in 
comfort  and  peace.  At  the  end  of  November  his  right  side 
was  paralysed,  and  he  lost  his  speech.  He  "  lingered  in  a 
somnolent  state  "  for  several  days,  says  Professor  Robertson, 
and  "  then  his  life  quietly  went  out." 

Bishop  Kennet  was  absurd  enough  to  hint  that  Hobbes's 
"  lying  some  days  in  a  silent  stupefaction,  did  seem  owing  to 
his  mind,  more  than  his  body."  *  Am  old  man  of  ninety-one 
suffers  a  paralytic  stroke,  loses  his  speech,  sinks  into  uncon- 
sciousness, and  quietly  expires.  What  could  be  more  natural  ? 

4  Robertson,  p.  203. 
*  Memoirs  'of  the  Cavendish  Family,  p.  108. 


AUSTJK   HOLYOAKE.  58 

Yet  the  Bishop,  belonging  to  an  order  which  always  scents  a 
brimstone  flavor  round  the  heretic's  death-bed,  must  explain 
this  stupor  and  inanition  by  supposing  that  the  moribund 
philosopher  was  in  a  fit  of  despair.  "We  have  only  to  add 
that  Bishop  Kennet  was  not  present  at  Hobbes's  death.  His 
theory  is,  therefore,  only  a  professional  surmise;  and  we  may 
be  sure  that  the  wish  was  father  to  the  thought. 


AUSTIN  HOLYOAKB. 

This  stedfast  Freethinker  was  a  younger  brother  of  George 
Jacob  Holyoake.  He  was  of  a  singularly  modest  and  amiable 
nature,  and  although  he  left  many  friends  he  left  not  a  single 
enemy.  He  was  entirely  devoted  to  the  Freethought  cause, 
and  satisfied  to  work  hard  behind  the  scenes  while  more 
popular  figures  took  the  credit  and  profit.  His  assiduity  in 
the  publishing  business  at  Fleet  Street,  which  was  ostensibly 
managed  by  his  better-known  and  more  fortunate  brother, 
induced  a  witty  friend  to  call  him  "  Jacob's  ladder."  After- 
wards he  threw  in  his  lot  with  Charles  Bradlaugh,  then  the 
redoubtable  "Iconoclast,"  and  became  the  printer  and  in 
part  sub-editor  of  the  National  Reformer,  to  whose  columns 
he '  was  a  frequent  and  welcome  contributor.  He  died  on 
April  10,  1874,  and  was  interred  at  Highgate  Cemetery,  his 
funeral  being  largely  attended  by  the  London  Freethinkers, 
including  C.  Bradlaugh,  C.  Watts,  G.  W.  Foote,  James  Thomson 
and  G.  J.  Holyoake.  The  malady  that  carried  him  off  was 
consumption;  he  was  conscious  almost  to  the  last ;  and  his 
only  regret  in  dying,  at  the  comparatively  early  age  of  forty- 
seven,  was  that  he  could  no  longer  fight  the  battle  of  freedom, 
nor  protect  the  youth  of  his  little  son  and  daughter. 

Two  days  before  his  death,  Austin  Holyoake  dictated  his 
last  thoughts  on  religion,  which  were  written  down  by  his 
devoted  wife,  and  printed  in  the  National  Reformer  of  April 
19, 1874  Part  of  this  document  is  filled  with  his  mental 
history.  In  the  remainder  he  reiterates  his  disbelief  in  the 
cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity.  The  following  extracts 
are  interesting  and  pertinent : 


54  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDP. 

«e  Christians  constantly  tell  Freethinkers  that  their  principles  ol 
« negation,'  as  they  term  them,  may  do  very  -well  for  health ;  but 
when  the  hour  of  sickness  and  approaching  death  arrives  they 
utterly  break  down,  and  the  hope  of  a  « blessed  immortality '  can 
alone  give  consolation.  In  my  own  case  I  have  been  anxious  to 
test  the  truth  of  this  assertion,  and  have  therefore  deferred  till 
the  latest  moment  I  think  it  prudent  to  dictate  these  few  lines. 

"  To  desire  eternal  bliss  is  no  proof  that  we  shall  ever  attain  it ; 
and  it  has  long  seemed  to  me  absurd  to  believe  in  that  which  we 
wish  for,  however  ardently.  I  regard  all  forms  of  Christianity  as 
founded  in  selfishness.  It  is  the  expectation  held,  out  of  bliss 
through  all  eternity,  in  return  for  the  profession  of  faith  in  Christ 
and  him  crucified,  that  induces  the  erection  of  temples  of  worship 
in  all  Christian  lands.  Remove  the  extravagant  promise,  and  you 
will  hear  very  little  of  the  Christian  religion. 

"As  I  have  stated  before,  my  mind  being  free  from  any  doubts 
on  these  bewildering  matters  of  speculation,  I  have  experienced 
for  twenty  years  the  most  perfect  mental  repose ;  and  now  I  find 
that  the  near  approach  of  death,  the  <  grim  King  of  Terrors,' 
gives  me  not  the  slightest  alarm.  I  have  suffered,  and  am  suffer- 
ing, most  intensely  both  by  night  and  day ;  but  this  has  not  pro- 
duced the  least  symptom  of  change  of  opinion.  No  amount  of 
bodily  torture  can  alter  a  mental  conviction.  Those  who,  under 
pain,  say  they  see  the  error  of  their  previous  belief,  had  never 
thought  out  the  subject  for  themselves." 

These  are  words  of  transparent  sincerity;  not  a  phrase  is 
strained*  not  a  line  .aims  at  effect.  Beading  them,  wo  feel  in 
presence  of  .an  earnest  man  bravely  confronting  death,  con- 
sciously sustained  by  liis  convictions,  and  serenely  bidding 
the  world  farewell. 


VICTOR  HUGO. 

The  greatest  Trench  poet  of  this  century,  perhaps  tho 
greatest  French  poet  of  all  time,  was  a  fervent  Thciet, 
reverencing  the  prophet  of  Nazareth  as  a  man,  and  holding 
that  "  the  divine  tear  "  of  Jesus  and  "the  human  smile"  of 
Voltaire  "  compose  the  sweetness  of  the  present  civilisation.'* 
But  he  was  perfectly  free  from  the  trammels  of  creeds,  and 
he  hated  priestcraft,  like  despotism,  with  a  perfect  hatred. 
In  one  of  his  striking  later  poems,  Religion  et  les  Religions,  fco 
derides  and  denounces  the  tenets  and  pretensions  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Devil,  he  says  to  the  clergy,  is  only  tho  monkey 


VICTOR  HUGO.  55 

of  superstition ;  your  Hell  is  an  outrage  on  Humanity  and  a 
blasphemy  against  God;  and  when  you  tell  me  that  your 
deity  made  you  in  his  own  image,  I  reply  that  he  must  be 
very  ugly. 

As  a  man,  as  well  as  a  writer,  there  was  something  magni- 
ficently grandiose  about  him.  Subtract  him  from  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  you  rob  it  of  much  of  its  glory.  For 
nineteen  years  on  a  lonely  channel  island,  an  exile  from  the 
land  of  his  birth  and  his  love,  he  nursed  the  conscience  of 
humanity  within  his  mighty  heart,  brandishing  the  lightnings 
and  thunders  of  chastisement  over  the  heads  of  the  political 
brigands  who  were  stifling  a  nation,  and  prophesying  their 
certain  doom.  When  it  came,  after  Sedan,  he  returned  to 
Paris,  and  for  fifteen  years  he  was  idolised  by  its  people. 
There  was  great  mourning  at  his  death,  and  "  all  Paris" 
attended  his  funeral.  But  true  to  the  simplicity  of  his  life 
he  ordered  that  his  body  should  lie  in  a  common  coffin,  which 
contrasted  vividly  with  the  splendid  procession.  France 
buried  him,  as  she  did  Gambetta ;  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  the 
Church  of  St.  Genevieve,  re- secularised  as  the  Pantheon  for 
the  occasion;  and  the  interment  took  place  without  any 
religious  rites. 

Hugo's  great  oration  on  Yoltaire,  in  1878,  roused  the  ire 
of  the  Bishop  of  Orleans,  who  reprimanded  him  in  a  public 
letter.  The  freethinking  poet  sent  a  crushing  reply  : 

« France  had  to  pass  an  ordeal.  France  was  free.  A  man 
traitorously  seized  her  in  the  night,  threw  her  down  and  garrotted 
her.  If  a  people  could  be  killed,  tnat  man  had  slain  France.  He 
made  her  dead  enough  for  him  to  reign  over  her.  He  began  his 
reign,  since  it  was  a  reign,  with  perjury,  lying  iii  wait,  and  mas- 
sacre.  He  continued  it  by  oppression,  by  tyranny,  by  despotism, 
by  an  unspeakable  parody  of  religion  and  justice.  He  was 
monstrous  and  little.  The  Te  Deum,  Magnificat,  Salvum  fac, 
Gloria  tibi,  were  sung  for  him.  Who  sang  them  ?  Ask  yourself. 
The  law  delivered  the  people  up  to  him.  The  church  delivered 
God-  up  to  him.  Under  that  man  sank  down  right,  honor,  country; 
he  had  beneath  his  feet  oath,  equity,  probity,  the  glory  of  the  flag, 
the  dignity  of  men,  the  liberty  of  citizens.  That  man's  prosperity 
disconcerted  the  human  conscience.  It  lasted  nineteen  years* 
During  that  time  you  were  in  a  palace.  I  was  in  exile.  I  pity 
you,  sir." 

Despite  this  terrible  rebuff  to  Bishop  Dupanloup,  another 


56  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

priest,  Cardinal  Guibert,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  had  the  temerity 
und  bad  taste  to  obtrude  himself  when  Victor  Hugo  lay  dying 
in  1885.  Being  born  on  February  26, 1802,  the  poet  was  in  his 
eighty-fourth  year,  and  expiring  naturally  of  old  age.  Had 
the  rites  of  the  Church  been  performed  on  him  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, it  would  have  been  an  insufferable  farce.  Yet 
the  Archbishop  wrote  to  Madame  Lockroy,  offering  to  bring 
personally  "  the  succor  and  consolation  so  much  needed  in 
these  cruel  ordeals."  Monsieur  Lockroy  at  once  replied  as 
follows : 

"  Madame  Lockroy,  who  cannot  leave  the  bedside  of  her  father- 
in-law,  begs  me  to  thank  you  for  the  sentiments  which  you  have 
expressed  with  so  much  eloquence  and  kindness.  As  regards 
M.  Victor  Hugo,  he  has  again  said  within  the  last  few  days,  that 
he  had  no  wish  during  his  illness  to  be  attended  by  a  priest  of  any 
persuasion.  We  should  be  wanting  in  our  duty  if  we  did  not 
respect  his  resolution."8 

Hugo's  death-chamber  was  thus  unprofaned  by  the  presence 
of  a  priest.  He  expired  in  peace,  surrounded  by  the  beings 
lie  loved.  According  to  the  Times  correspondent  in  Paris, 
'•Almost  his  last  words,  addressed  to  his  granddaughter, 
were,  *  Adieu,  Jeanne,  adieu  ! '  And  his  last  movement,  of 
Consciousness  was  to  clasp  his  grandson's  hand."  The  hero- 
poet  bade  his  charming  grandchildren  adieu ;  but  the  world 
will  not  bid  them  adieu,  any  more  than  him,  for  he  has 
immortalised  them  in  his  imperishable  Jj  Art  d'etre  Grandpere, 
every  page  of  which  is  scented  with  the  deathless  perfume  of 
adorable  love. 


DAVID  HUME. 

Professor  Huxley  ventures  to  call  David  Hume  "  the  most 
acute  thinker  of  the  eighteenth  century,  even  though  it  pro- 
duced Kant."  7  Hume's  greatness  is  no  less  clearly  acknow- 
ledged by  Joseph  De  Maistre,  the  foremost  champion  of  the 
Papacy  in  our  own  century.  "I  believe,"  he  says,  "that 
taking  all  into  account,  the  eighteenth  century,  so  fertile  m 

•  London  Times,  May23,  1885 :  Paris  Correspondent's  letter. 
1  'Lo/u  Sermonsj  p.  141 


DAVID   HUME.  37 

this  respect,  has  not  produced  a  single  enemy  of  religion  who 
can  be  compared  with  Jiim.  His  cold  venom  is  far  more 
damgerous  than  the  foaming  rage  of  Voltaire.  If  ever,  among 
men  who-  have  heard  the  gospel  pir cached,  there  has  existed  a 
veritable  Atheist  (which  I  will  not  undertake  to  decide)  it  is 
he«" 8  Allowing  for  the  personal  animosity  in  his  estimate 
of  Hume,  De  Maistre  is  as  accurate  as  Huxley.  The  immor- 
tal Essays  attest  both  his  penetration  and  his  scepticism;  the 
one  on  Miracles  being  a  perpetual  stumbling-block  to  Christian 
apologists.  "With  superb  irony,  Hume  closes  that  portentous 
discourse  with  a  reprimand  of  "  those  dangerous  friends  or 
disguised  enemies  to  the  Christian  Religion,  who  have  under- 
taken to  defend  it  by  the  principles  of  human  reason."  Ho 
reminds  them  that  "  our  most  holy  religion  is  founded  on 
faith,  not  on  reason."  He  remarks  that  Christianity  was  "  not 
only  attended  by  miracles,  but  even  at  this  day  cannot  be 
believed  by  any  reasonable  person  without  one."  For 
"  whoever  is  moved  by  faith  to  assent  to  it,  is  conscious 
of  a  continued  miracle  in  his  own  person,  which  subverts  all 
the  principles  Of  his  understanding,  and  gives  him -a  deter- 
mination to  believe  what  is  most  contrary  to  custom  and 
experience." 

Hume  was  born  at  Edinburgh  on  April  26,  1711.  His  life 
was  the  uneventful  one  of  a  literary  man.  Besides  his  Essays, 
he  published  a  History  of  England,  which  was  the  first  serious 
effort  in  that  direction.  Judged  by  the  standard  of  our  day 
it  is  inadequate;  but  it  abounds  in  philosophical  reflections  of 
the  highest  order,  and^its  style  is  nearly  perfect.  Gibbon, 
who  was  a  good  judge  of  style,  had  an  unbounded  admiration 
for  Hume's  "  careless  inimitable  beauties." 

Fortune,  however,  was  not  so  kind  to  him  as  fame.  At  the 
age  of  forty,  his  frugal  habits  had  enabled  him  to  save  no 
more  than  £1,000.  He  reckoned,  his  income  at  £50  a  year, 
but  his  wants  were  few,  his  spirit  was  cheerful,  .and  there 
were  few  prizes  in  the  lottery  of  life  for  which  he  would  have 
made  an  exchange.  In  1775  his  health  began  to  fail. 
Knowing  that  his  disorder  (hemorrhage  of  the  bowels)  would 

8  Lettres  swr  V  Inquisition^  pp.  147,  148. 


58  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

prove  fatal,  he  made  his  will,  and  wrote  My  Own  Life,  the 
conclusion  of  which,  says  Huxley,  "  is  one  of  the  most  cheer- 
ful, simple  and  dignified  leave-takings  of  life  and  all  its  con- 
cerns, extant."  He  died  on  August  25,  1776,  and  was  buried 
a  few  days  later  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Calton  Hill,  Edinburgh, 
his  body  being  "  attended  by  a  great  concourse  of  people,  who 
seem  to  have  anticipated  for  it  the  fate  appropriate  to  wizards 
and  necromancers."  * 

Dr.  Adam  Smith,  the  great  author  of  the  Wealih  of  Nations, 
was  one  of  Hume's  most  intimate  friends.  He  tell  us  that 
Hume  went  to  London  in  April,  1776,  and  soon  after  his  re- 
turn he  "  gave  up  all  hope  of  recovery,  but  submitted  with 
the  utmost  cheerfulness,  and  the  most  perfect  complacency 
and  resignation."  His  cheerfulness  was  so  great  that  many 
people  could  not  believe  he  was  dying.  "  Mr.  Hume's  mag- 
nanimity and  firmness  were  such,"  says  Adam  Smith,  "  that 
his  most  affectionate  friends  knew  that  they  hazarded  nothing 
in  talking  and  writing  to  him  as  a  dying  man,  and  that,  so 
far  from  being  hurt  by  this  frankness,  he  was  rather  pleased 
and  flattered  by  it."  His  chief  thought  in  relation  to  the 
possible  prolongation  of  his  life,  which  his  friends  hoped 
although  he  told  them  their  hopes  were  groundless,  was  that 
he  would  have  "  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  downfall  of 
some  of  the  prevailing  systems  of  superstition."  On  August  8, 
Adam  Smith  went  to  Kircaldy,  leaving  Hume  in  a  very 
weak  state  but  still  very  cheerful.  On  August  28,  he  received 
the  following  letter  from  Dr.  Black,  the  physician,  announcing 
the  philosopher's  death : 

"  EDINBURGH,  MONDAY,  AUG.  26,  1776.  DEAE  Sis,  Yesterday,  about 
four  o'clock,  afternoon,  Mr.  Hume  expired.  The  near  approach  of 
his  death  became  evident  in  the  night  between  Thursday  and 
Friday,  when  his  disease  became  excessive,  and  soon  weakened  him 
so  much,  that  he  could  no  longer  rise  out  of  his  hed.  He  continued 
to  the  last  perfectly  sensible,  and  free  from  much  pain  or  feelings 
of  distress.  He  never  dropped  the  smallest  expression  of  impatience ; 
but  when  he  had  occasion  to  speak  to  the  people  about  him,  always 
did  it  with  affection  and  tenderness.  I  thought  it  improper  to 
write  to  bring  you  over,  especially  as  I  heard  that  he  had  dictated 
a  letter  to  you,  desiring  you  not  to  come.  When. he  became  weak 

9  Hume,  by  Professor  Huxley,  p.  43. 


M.   LITTKE.  59 

it  cost  him '  an  effort  to  speak,  and  lie  died  in  such  a  happy  com- 
posure  of  mind  that  nothing  could  exceed  it." 

"  Thus,"  says  Adam  Smith,  "  died  our  most  excellent  and 
never  to  be  forgotten  friend.  .  .  .  Upon  the  whole,  I  have 
always  considered  him,  both  in  his  lifetime  and  since  his  death 
as  approaching  as  nearly  to  the  idea  of  a  perfectly  wise  and 
virtuous  man  as  'perhaps  the  nature  of  human  frailty 
permit."  l 


M.  LITTRE. 

This  great  French  Positivist  died  in  1882  at  the  ripe  age 
of  eighty-one.  M.  Littre  was  one  of  the  foremost  writers  in 
France.  His  monumental  "  Dictionary  of  the  French  Lan- 
guage "  is  the  greatest  work  of  its  kind  in  the  world.  As  a 
scholar  and  a  philosopher  his  eminence  was  universally  recog- 
nised. His  character  was  so  pure  and  sweet  that  a  Catholic 
lady  called  him  "  a  saint  who  does  not  believe  in  God." 
Although  not  rich,  his  purse  was  ever  open  to  the-  claims  of 
charity.  He  was  one  who  "  did  good  by  stealth,"  and  his 
benefactions  were  conferred  without  respect  to  creed.  A 
Freethinker  himself,  he  patronised  the  Catholic  orphanage 
near  his  residence,  and  took  a  keen  interest  in  the  welfare  of 
its  inmates.  He  was  an  honor  to  France,  to  the  world,  and 
to  the  Humanity  which  he  loved  and  served  instead  of  God. 

M.  Littre'?s  wife  was  an  ardent  Catholic,  yet  sho  was 
allowed  to  follow  her  own  religious  inclinations  without  the 
least  interference.  The  great .  Freethinker  valued  liberty  of 
conscience  above  all  other  rights,  and  what  ho  claimed  for 
himself  he  conceded  to  others.  He  scorned  to  exercise  autho- 
rity even  in  the  domestic  circle,  where  EO  much  tyranny  is 
practised.  His  wife,  however,  was  less  scrupulous.  -After 
enjoying  for  so  many  years  the  benefit  of  his  steadfast  tolera- 
tion; she  took  advantage  of  her  position  to  exclude  his  friends 
from  his  death-bed,  to  have  him  baptised  in  his  last  moments, 
and  to  secure  his  burial  in  consecrated  ground  with  pious 

1  Letter  to  William  Strahan,  dated  November  9,  1776,  and  usually 
prefixed  to  Hume's  History  of  England. 


60  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

rites.  Not  satisfied  with  this,  she  even  allowed  it  to  be  under- 
stood that  her  husband  had  recanted  his  heresy  and-  died  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Church.  The  Abbe  Huvelin,  her  confessor, 
who  frequently  visited  M.  Littre  during  his  last  illness, 
assisted  her  in  the  fraud. 

There  was  naturally  a  disturbance  at  M.  Littre's  funeral. 
As  the  Standard  correspondent  wrote,  his  friends  and  dis- 
ciples were  "  very  angry  at  this  recantation  in  extremis,  and 
claimed  that  dishonest  priestcraft  took  advantage  of  the  dark- 
ness cast  over  that  clear  intellect  by  the  mist  of  approaching 
death  to  perform  the  rites  of  the  Church  over  his  semi- 
inanimate  body."  While  the  body  was  laid  out  in  Catholic 
fashion,  with  crucifixes,  candles,  and  priests  telling  their 
beads,  Dr.  Galopin  advanced  to  the  foot  of  the  coffin  anc\ 
spoke  as  follows  : — 

"  Master,  you  used  to  call  me  your  son,  and  you  loved  me.  I 
remain  your  disciple  and  your  defender.  I  come,  in  the  name  of 
Positive  Philosophy,  to  claim  the  rights  of  universal  Freemasonry. 
A  deception  has  been  practised  upon  us,  to  try  and  steal  you  from 
thinking  humanity.  But  the  future  will  judge  your  enemies  and 
ours.  Master  we  will  revenge  you  by  making  our  children  read 
your  books." 

At  the  grave,  M.  Wyrouboff,  editor  of  the  Comtist  review 
La  Philosophic  Positive,  founded  by  M.  Littre,  delivered  a 
brief  address  to  the  Freethinkers  who  remained,  which  con- 
cluded thus — 

« Littre  proved  by  his  example  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to 
possess  a  noble  and  generous  heart,  and  at  the  same  time  espouse 
a  doctrine  which  admits  nothing  beyond  what  is  positively  real 
and  which  prevents  any  recantation.  And  gentlemen,  in  spite  of 
deceptive  appearance,  Littr4  died  as  lie  had  lived,  without  contradictions 
or  weakness.  All  those  who  knew  that  calm  and  serene  mind — arid 
I  was  of  the  number  of  those  who  did — are  well  aware  that  it 
was  irrevocably  closed  to  the  'unknowable/  and  that  it  was 
thoroughly  prepared  to  meet  courageously  the  irresistible  laws  of 
nature-  And  now  sleep  in  peace,  proud  and  noble  thinker !  You 
will  not  have  the  eternity  of  a  world  to  come,  which  you  never 
expected ;  but  you  leave  behind  you  your  country  that  you  strove 
honestly  to  serve,  the  Republic  which  you  always  loved,  a  genera- 
tion of  d  isciples  who  will  remain  faithful  to  you  j  and  last,  but 
not  lea* »,  you  leave  your  thoughts  and  your  virtues  to  the  whole 
world.  Social  immortality,  the  only  beneficent  and  fecund  immor- 
tality, commences  for  you  to-day," " 

1L  "Wyrouboff  afterwards  amply  proved  his  statements. 


Mi   LITTEEi  61 

The  English ;  press  creditably  rejected  the  etory  of  M. 
Littre's  recantation.  The  Daily  News  sneered  at  it,  the 
Times  described  it 'as  absurd,  the  Standard  said  it  looked  un- 
true. But  the  Morning  Advertiser  was  still  more  outspoken. 
It  said : 

«  There  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  M.  Littre  died  a  steadfast 
adherent  to  the  princples  he  so  powerfully  advocated  during  his 
laborious  and  distinguished  life.  The  Church  may  claim,  as  our 
Paris  correspondent,  in  his  interesting  note  on  the*  subject,  tells 
us  she  is  already  claiming,  the  death -bed  conversion  of  the  great 
unbeliever,  who  for  the  last  thirty-five  years  was  one  of  her  most 
active  and  formidable  enemies.  She  has  attempted  to  take  the 
same  posthumous  revenge  "on  Voltaire,  on  Paine,  and  on  many 
others,  who  w^re  described  by  Roman  Catholic  writers  as  calling 
in  the  last  dreadful  hour  for  the  spiritual  support  they  held  up 
to  ridicule  in  the  confidence  of  health  and  the  presumption  of 
their  intellect." 

In  the  Paris  Gaulois  there  appeared  a  letter  from  the  Abbe 
Huvelin,  written  very  ambiguously,  and  obviously  intended 
to  mislead.  But  one  fact  stands  out  clear.  This  priest  was 
only  admitted  to  visit  M.  Littre*  as  a  friend,  and  he  was  not 
allowed  to  baptise  him.  The  Archbishop  of  Paris  also,  in  his 
omcial  organ,  La  Semaine  Religieuse,  admitted  that  "  ho 
received  the  sacrament  of  baptism  on  the  morning  of  the  very 
day  of  his  death,  not  from  the  hands  of  the  priest,  who  had  not 
yet  arrived,  but  from  those  of  Madame  Littre."  The  Arch- 
bishop, however,  insists  that  he  "  received  the  ordinance  in 
perfect  consciousness  and  with  his  own  full  consent."  Now 
as  M.  Littre*  was  eighty-one  years  old,  as  he  had  been  for 
twelve  months  languishing  with  a  feeble  hold  on  life,  during 
which  time  he  was  often  in  a  state  of  stupor,  and  as  this  wa3 
the  very  morning  of  his  death,  I  leave  the  reader  to  estimate 
the  value  of  what  the  Archbishop  calls  "  perfect  consciousness 
and  full  consent."  If  any  consent  was  given  by  the  dying 
Freethinker,  it  was  ouly  to  gratify  his  wife  and  daughter,  and 
at  the  last  moment  when  he  had  no  will  to  resist ;  for  if  ho 
had  been  more  compliant  they  would  certainly  have  baptised 
him  before.  Submission  in  these  circumstances  counts  for 
nothing ;  and  in  any  case  there  is  forceful  truth  in  M.  Littre's 
words,  written  in  1879  id  his  Conservation,  Bevolution,  et 
Positivisme-—"  a  whole  life  passed  without  any  observance  of 
eligio  us  rites  must  outweigh  the  single  final  act." 


02  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

Unfortunately  for  the  clericals,  there  exists  a  document 
which  may  be  considered  M.  Littre*'s  last  confession.  It  is  an 
article  written  for  the  Comtist  review  a  year  before  his  death, 
entitled,  "Pour  la  Derniere  Fois  " — For  the  Last  Time. 
While  writing  it  he  knew  that  his  end  was  not  far  off.  "  For 
many  months,"  he  says,  "  my  sufferings  have  prostrated  me 
with  dreadful  persistence.  .  .  .  Every  evening  when  I  have 
to  be  put  to  bed,  my  pains  are  exasperated,  and  often  I  have 
not  the  strength  to  stifle  cries  which  are  grievous  to  me  and 
grievous  to  those  who  tend  me."  After  the  article  was  com- 
pleted his  malady  increased.  Fearing  the  worst,  he  wrote  to 
his  friend,  M.  Caubet,  as  follows  : 

"Last  Saturday  I  swooned  away  for  a  long  time.  It  is  for  that 
reason  I  send  you,  a  little  prematurely,  my  article  for  the  Beview. 
If  I  livet  I  will  correct  the  proofs  as  usual.  If  I  die,  let  it  be 
printed  and  published  in  the  Review  as  a  posthumous  article.  It 
will  be  a  last  trouble  which  I  venture  to  give  you.  The  reader 
must  do  his  best  to  follow  the  manuscript  faithfully." 

If  I  live— If  I  die !  These  are  the  words  of  one  in  the 
shadow  of  Death. 

Let  us  see  what  M.  Littre*'s  last  confession  is.  I  translate 
two  passages  from  the  article.  Referring  to  Charles  Greville, 
he  says : 

"  I  feel  nothing  of  what  he  experienced.  Like  him,  I  find  it 
impossible  to  accept  the  theory  of  the  world  which  Catholicism  * 
prescribes-  to  all  true  believers  $  but  I  do  not  regret  being  without 
such  doctrines,  and  I  cannot  discover  in  myself  any  wish  to  return 
to  them." 

And  he  concludes  the  article  with  these  words  : 

«*  Positive*  Philosophy,  which  has  so  supported  me  since  my 
thirtieth  year,  and  which,  in  giving  me  an  ideal,  a  craving  for 
progress,  the  vision  of  history  and  care  for  humanity,  has  pre- 
served me  from  being  a  simple  negationist,  accompanies  me 
faithfully  in  these  last  trials.  The  questions  it  solves  in  its  own 
way,  the  rules  it  prescribes  by  virtue  of  its  principle,  the  beliefs  it 
discountenances  in  the  name  of  our  ignorance  of  ever\rthing  abso. 
lute  ;  of  these  I  .have  in  the  preceding  pages  made  an  examination, 
which  I  conclude  with  the  supreme  word  of  the  commencement, 
for  the  last  time." 

So  much  for  the  lying  story  of  M.  Littre's  recantation.     In 

8  To  a  Frenchman,  Catholicism  and  Christianity  mean  one  and 
the  same  thing. 


HARBIET   MAHTINEAU.  63 

the  words  of  M.  Wyrouboff,  although  his  corpse  was  accom- 
panied to  the  grave  by  priests  and  believers,  his  name  will  go 
down  to  future  generations  as  that  of  one  who  was  to  the  and 
"a  servant  to  science  and  an  enemy  to  superstition." 


HARKIET  MARTINEAU. 

This  gifted  woman  died  on  May  27,  1876,  after  a  long 
and  useful  life,  filled  with  literary  labor  in  the  cause  of 
progress.  On  April  19,  less  than  six  weeks  before  her  death, 
she  wrote  her  last  letter  to  Mr.  H.  Gr.  Atkinson,  from  which 
the  following  is  taken. 

"I  cannot  ^  think  of  any  future  as  at  all  probable,  except  the 
'annihilation'  from  which  some  people  recoil  with  so  much  hor- 
ror. I  find  myself  here  in  the  universe — I  know  not  how,  whence 
or  why.  I  see  everything  in  the  universe  go  out  and  disappear, 
and  I  see  no  reason  for  supposing  that  it  is  not  an  actual  and  entire 
death.  And  for  my  part,  I  have  no  objection  to  such  an  extinction. 
I  well  remember  the  passion  with  which  W.  E.  Forster  said  to 
me  « 1  had  rather  be  damned  than  annihilated.'  If  he  once  felt 
five  minutes'  damnation,  he  would  be  thankful  for  extinction  in 
preference.  The  truth  is,  I  care  little  about  it  any  way.  Now 
that  the  event  draws  near,  and  that  I  see  how  fully  niy  household 
expect  my  death  pretty  soon,  the  universe  opens'  so  widely  before 
my  view,  and  I  see  the  ol<J  notions  of  death,  and  scenes  to  iollow, 
so  merely  human — so  impossible  to  be  true,  when  one  glances 
through  the  range  of  science,— that  I  see  nothing  'to  be  done 
but  to  wait, "without  fear  or  hope  or  ignorant  prejudice,  for  the 
expiration  of  life.  I  have  no  wish  for  future  experience,  nor  have 
I  any  fear  of  it.  Under  the  weariness-  of  illness  I  long  to  be 
asleep."8 

These  are  the  words  of  a  brave  woman,  who  met  Death 
with  the  same  fortitude  as  she  exhibited  in  the  presence  of 
the  defenders  of  slavery  in  the  United  States. 


JEAN  MESLIEE. 

Jean  "Meslier,  or  more  correctly  Mellier,  was  born  on 
June  15,  1664.  His  death  occurred  in  1733.  He  was  cure*,  or 
parish  priest,  of  Entrepigny,  He  left  his  small  property  to 

8  Autobiography  of  Harriet  Mwrtineau,  Yol.  III.,  p.  454  j  jedition  1877. 


$4  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

his  parishioners,  and  asked  to  be  buried  in  his  own  garden. 
Among  his  effects  were  found  three  copies  of  a  manuscript  of 
370  folios,  signed  by  his  own  hand  and  entitled  My  Testament. 
The  writing  was  found  to  be  a  merciless  exposure  of  Chris- 
tianity. What  ho  could  not  say  while  alive,  he  said  in  this 
legacy  to  his  flock.  As  he  himself  wrote  on  the  wrapper  of 
the  copy  for  his  parishioners,  "  I  have,  not  dared  to  say  it 
during  my  life,  but  I  will  say  it  at  least  in  dying  or  after  my 
death."  On  November  17,  1794,  the  National  Convention 
sent  to  the  Committee  of  Public  Instruction  a  proposal  to 
erect  a  statue  to  Meslier  as  4*  the  first  priest  who  had  the 
courage  and  honesty  to  abjure  his  religious  errors."  A  work 
called  Bon  Sens,  translated  into  English  as  Good  Sense,  is  not 
by  Meslier,  but  by  D'Holbach. 

Authorities : 

UJarousse,  DictionnaAre  Universelle* 

Bouilliot,  Biogrcvplvie  Ardenaise. 

Voltaire's  Works  and  Letters. 


JAMES  MILL. 

James  Mill,  the  author  of  the  History  of  British  India,  tile 
Analysis  of  the  Phenomena  of  the  Human  Mind,  and  other 
works,  was  a  robust  thinker  and  a  powerful  writer  himself; 
though  his  name  became  more  illustrious  when  borne  by  his 
great  son,  7ohn  Stuart  Mill.  James  Mill  was  born  in  1773» 
He  would  have  entered  the  pulpit  as  a  Presbyterian  preacher, 
had  he  not  "  by  his  own  studies  and  reflections  been  led  to 
reject  not  only  the  belief  in  Revelation,  but  the  foundations 
of  what  is  commonly  called  Natural  Beligion."  4  He  came  to 
the  conviction  that  "  concerning  the  origin  of  things  nothing 
whatever  can  be  known."  He  looked  upon  religion  as  "  the 
greatest  enemy  of  morality,"  and  he  regarded  the  God  of 
Christianity  as  an  embodiment  of  the  "  ne  plus  ultra  of 
wickedness."  From  these  views  he  never  departed.  His 
death  occurred  on  June  23,  1836.  Mrs.  Grote  says  "  he  died 
without  any  pain  or  struggle,  of  long  standing  pulmonary 

4  J.  S.  Mill,  Autobiography,  p.  38. 


JOHN   STUART  MILL.  65 

phthisis'"    Francis  Place  wrote  as  follows  to  Mrs.  Grote  on 
June  15. 

«  Stayed  too  long  with  poor  Mill,  who  showed  much  more  "sym- 
pathy and  affection  than  ever  before  in  all  our  long  friendship. 
But  he  .was  all  the  time  a.s  much  of  a  bright  reasoning  man  as. 
ever  he  was — reconciled  to  his  fate,  brave,  and  calm  to  an  extent 
which  -I  never  before  witnessed,  except  in  another  old  friend, 
Thomas  Holcroft,  the  day  before  the  day  of  his  death."  5 

Holcroft  and  Place,  it   should  be  added,  were  both  Free- 
thinkers. 


JOHK  STUART  MILL. 

Mill  was  born  in  Bodney  Street,  Pent/on ville,  London,  on 
May  20,  180G,  and  he  died  at  Avignon  on  May  8,  1873.  Not- 
withstanding the  unguarded  admissions  in  the  one  of  his 
three  Essays  on  Religion  which  'he  never  prepared  for  the 
press,  it  is  certain  that  he  lived  and  died  a  Freethinker.  His 
father  educated  him  without  theology,  and  he  never  really 
imbibed  any  afterwards.  Professor  Bain,  his  intimate  friend 
and  his  biographer,  tells  us  that  "  he  absented  himself  during 
his  whole  life  from  religious  services,"  and  that  "  in  every- 
thing characteristic  of  the  creed  of  Christendom  "he  was  a 
thorough-going  negationist.  He  admitted  neither  its  truth 
nor  its  utility."0  Mr.  John  Morley  also,  in  his  admirably 
written  account  of  the  last  day  he  spent  with  Mill,7  says  that 
he  looked  .forward  to  a  general  growth  of  the  religion  of 
Humanity. 

Mill  was  one  of  the  pall -bearers  at  Grote' s  funeral  in  1871- 
He.  accepted  the  office  under  great  pressure,  and  on  walking 
out  of  Westminster  Abbey  with  Professor  Bain  he  remarked — 
"  In  no'  very  long  time,  I  shall  .be  laid  in  the  ground  with  a 
very  different  ceremonial  from  that." 8  Professor  Bain 
observes : 

« It  so  happened,  however,  that  a  prayer  was  delivered  at  his 
own  interment  by.  the  Protestant  pastor  at  Avignon.,  who  thereby 

fi  Prof.  A.  Bain,  James  Mill,  p.  .409. 

«  John  Stuart  Mill,  by  Alexander  Bain," pp.  139,  14CL 

»  Miscellanies,  Vol.  Ill,  8  Bain,  p.  133. 

D 


66  INFIDEL   PUATH-BEDS. 

got  himself  into.trouble,  from  Mill's  known  scepticism,  and  had 
to  write  an  exculpation  in  the  local  newspaper."9 


This  pastor  had  become  friendly  TOfch  Mill  at  Avignon. 
According  to  Professor  Bain,  he  was  "  a  very  intelligent  and 
libetal-minded  man."  "When  the  Democratie  du  Midi  an- 
nounced that  Mill  had  received  Us  derniers  secours  de  la 
religion  (the  last  consolations  of  religion)  on  his  death-bed* 
M.  Eey,  honorably  denied  the  statement,  and  said,  H  tfy  avait 
point  de  pasteur  pres  du  lit  de  M.  Mill—"  There  was  no 
clergyman  at  Mr.  Mill's  bedside."1 

Mill  died  of  erysipelas  consequent  on  a  fall.  Three  days 
before  his  death  he  walked  fifteen  miles.  Dr.  Gurney  thu§ 
describes  his  last  hours  : 

«Mr.  Mill  suffered  but  little,  except  in  swallowing,  and>froni 
the  heat  and  weight  of  the  enormous  swelling,  which,  by  the  time 
I  arrived  from  Nice,  had  already  spread  over  his  face  and  neck  j 
and  yet  he  learned  from  me  on  my  arrival  the  fatal  nature  of  the 
attack  with  calmness  and  resignation.-  His  express  desire  that  he 
might  not  lose  his  mental  faculties  was  gratified,  for  his  great 
intellect  remained  clear  to  the  last  moment.  His  wish  that  his 
funeral  might  be  quiet  and  simple,  as  indeed,  his  every  wish,  was 
attended  to  by  his  loving  step-daughter  with  devoted  solicitude."2 

Mill's  death  was  not  misrepresented  in  England.  On 
the  contrary,  one  religious  journal,  which  died  itself  soon 
afterwards,  declared  its  opinion  that  his  soul  was  burning  in 
hell,  and  expressed  a  hearty  wish  that  his  disciples  would 
soon  follow  him. 


MIEABEAU: 

Gabriel  Honore  Eiquetti,  son  and  heir  of  the  Marquis  de 
Mirabeau,  was  born  on  March  9,  1747.  He  came  of  a  wild 
strong  stock,  and  was  a  magnificent  "  enormous  "  fellow  at 
his  birth,  the  head  being  especially  great.  The  turbulent 
life  of  .thd  man  has  been  graphically  told  by  'Carlyle  in  his 
Essays  and  in  the  French  Revolution.  Faults  he  had  many, 

»  Ibid,  133. 

1  M.  Eey's  letter  is  given  in  La,  Critique  PhiloscpTvique,  June  5, 
1873,  p.  283. 
*  Daily  News,  May  12,  1873. 


MJHABEAU.  67 

but  not  that  of  insincerity ;  with  all  his  failings,  he  was  a 
gigantic  mass  of  veracious  humanity.  "  Moralities  not  a  few»" 
Bays  Garlyle,  "  must  shriek  condemnatory  over  this  Mirabeau  ; 
the  Morality  by  which  ho  could  be  judged  has  not  yet  got 
uttered  in  the  speech  of  men." 

Mirabeau's  work  in  the  National  Assembly  belongs  to 
history.  It  was  mighty  and  splendid,  but  it  cannot  be  recited 
here.  His  life  burned  away  during  those  fateful  months 
the  incessant  labor  and  excitement  almost  passing  credibility. 
a  If  I  had  not  lived  with  him,"  says  Dumont,  "  I  never  should 
have  known  what  a  man  can  make  of  one  day,  what  things 
may  be  placed  within  the  interval  of  twelve  hours.  A  day  for- 
this  man  was  more  than  a  week  or  a  month  is  for  others." 
One  day  his  secretary  said  to  him  "  Monsieur  le  Comfce,  what 
you  require  is  impossible."  Whereupon  Mirabeau  started 
from  his  chair,  with  the  memorable  ejaculation,  "  Impossible ! 
Never  name  to  me  that  blockhead  of  a  word." — Ne  me  ditea 
jamais  ce  "bete  de  mot. 

But  the  Titan  of  the  Eevolution  was  exhausted  before  his 
task  was  done.  In  January,  1791,  he  sat  as  President  of  the 
Assembly  with  his  neck  bandaged  after  the  application  of 
leeches.  At  parting  he  said  to  Dumont  "  I  am  dying,  my 
friend ;  dying  as  by  slow  fire."  On  the  27th  of  Inarch  he 
stood  in  the  tribune  for  the  last  time.  Pour  days  later  he 
was  on  his  death-bed.  Crowds  beset  the  street,  anxious  but 
silent,  and  stopping  all  traffic  so  that  their  hero  might  not  be 
disturbed.  A  bulletin  was  issued  every  three  hours.  "  On 
Saturday  the  second  day  of  April,"  says  Carlyle,  "  Mirabeau 
feels  that  the  last  of  the  Days  has  risen  for  him ;  that  on  this 
day  he  has  to  depart  and  be  no  more.  His  death  is  Titanic, 
as  nis  life  has  been.  Lit  up,  for  the,  last  time,  in  the  glare  of 
the  coming  dissolution ,'  the  mind  of  the  man  is  all  glowing 
and  burning ;  utters  itself  in  sayings,  such  as  men  long  re- 
member. He  longs  to  live,  yet  acquiesces  in  death,  argues 
not  with  the  inexorable."  « 

Gazing  out  on  the  Spring  sun,  Mirabeau  said,  Si  ce  n'estpaa 
la  Dieu,  c'est  du  moms  eon  cousin  g&rmam — If  that  is  not  God,  it 

»  French  Revolution,  VoL  H.,  p.  120, 


68  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

is  at  least  his  cousin  germ  an.  It  was  the  great  utterance  of 
an  eighteenth-century  Pagan,  looking  across  the  mists  of 
Christian  superstition  to  the  saner  nature- worship  of  anti- 
quity, 

Power  of  speech  gone,  Mirabeau  made  signs  for  paper  and 
pen,  and  wrote  the  word  Dwnwr  "To  sleep."  Cabanis,  the 
great  physician,  who  stood  beside  him,  pretended  not  to 
understand  this  passionate  request  for  opium.  Thereupon, 
writes  the  doctor,  ••  he  made  a  sign  for  the  pen  and  paper  to 
be  brought  to  him  again,  and  wrote,  'Do  you  think  that 
Death  is  dangerous  ?  '—Seeing  that  I  did  not  comply  with  his 
demand,  he  wrote  again,  ' .  .  .  How  can  you  leave  your  friend 
on  the  wheel,  perhaps  for  days  P  '  "  Oabanis  and  Dr.  Petit 
decided  to  give  him  a  sedative.  While  it  was  sent  for  "  the 
pains  became  atrocious."  Recovering  speech  a  little  under 
the  torture,  he  turned  to  M.  de  la  Marck,  saying,  "  Tou  deceive 
me."  "  No,"  replied  his  friend,  "  we  are  not  deceiving  you, 
the  remedy  is  coming,  we  all  saw  it  ordered."  "  Ah,  the 
doctors,  thedoctors  ! "  he  muttered.  Then,  turning  to  Oabanis, 
with  a  look  of  mingled  anger  and  tenderness,  he  said,  "  Were 
you  not  my  doctor  and  my  friend  P  Did  you  noti  promise  to 
spare  me  the  agonies  of  such  a  death  ?  Do  you  wish  me  to 
expire  with  a  regret  that  I  trusted  you  ?  " 

"  Those  words,"  says  Oabanis,  "  the  last  that  he  uttered* 
ring  incessantly  in  my  ears.  He  turned  over  on  the  right 
side  with  a  convulsive  movement,  and  at  half-past  eight  in 
the  morning  he  expired  in  our  arms."4  Dr.  Petit,  standing 
at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  said  "  His  sufferings  are  ended."  "  So 
dies,"  writes  Carlyle,  "  a'  gigantic  Heathen  and  Titan ; 
stumbling  blindly,  undismayed,  down  to  his  rest." 

Mirabeau  was  an  Atheist,  and  he  was  buried  as  became  his 
philosophy  and  his  greatness.  The  Assembly  decreed  a 
Public  Funeral ;  there  was  a  procession  a  league  in  length, 
and  the  very  roofs,  trees,  and  lamp-posts,  were  covered  with 
people.  The  Church  of  Saint e-G-enevieve  was  turned  into  a 
Pantheon  for  the  Great  Men  of  the  Fatherland,  Aux  Orcvnds 

4  Journal  de  la  Maladie  et  de  la  Mort  d' Honord-Gabriel  Mirabeau. 
Paris,  1791  j  p.  263. 


ROBBET   OWEN.  69 

Sommes  la  Patrie  Reconnaiesante.  It  was  midnight  ere  the 
ceremonies  ended,  and  the  mightiest  man  in  France  was  left 
in  the  darkness  and  silence  to  his  long  repose.  Of  him,  more 
than  most  men,  it  might  well  have  been  said,  "  After  life's 
fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well."  Dormvr  "  To  sleep,"  he  wrote  in 
his  dying  agony.  Death  had  no  terror  for  him  ;•  it  was  only 
the  ringing  down  of  the  curtain  at  the  end  of  the  drama. 
From  the  womb  of  Nature  he  sprang,  and  like  a  tired  child 
he  fell  asleep  at  last  on  her  bosom. 


ROBERT  OWEN. 

Robert  Owen,  whose  name  was  once  a  terror  to  the  clergy 
and  the  privileged  classes,  was  born  at  Newt  own,  Mont- 
gomeryshire, on  May  14,  1771.  In  his  youth  he  noticed  the 
inconsistency  of  professing  Christians,  and  on  studying  the 
yarious  religions  of  the  world,  -as  he  tells  us  in  his  Auto* 
Tritgraphy,  he  found  that  "  one  and  all  had  emanated  from 
the  same  source,  and  their  varieties  from  the  same  false 
imaginations  of  our  early  ancestors."  We  have  no  space  to 
narrate  his  long  life,  his  remarkable  prosperity  in  cotton 
spinning,  his  experiments  in  the  education  of  children,  his 
disputes  with  the  clergy,  and  his  efforts  at  social  reform, 
to  which  he  devoted  his-  time  and  wealth  with  singular 
disinterestedness  and  simplicity.  At  one  time  his  influence 
even  with  the  upper  classes  was  remarkable,  but  he  seriously 
impaired  it  in  1817,  by  honestly  stating,  at  a  great  meeting 
at  the  City  of  London  Tavern,  .that  it  was  useless  to  hope  for 
real  reform,  while  people  were  besotted  by  "the.  gross  errors 
that  have  been  combined  vwith  the  fundamental  notions  of 
every  religion."  After  many  more  years  of  labor  for  the 
cause  he  loved,  Owen  quietly  passed  away  on  November  17, 
1858,  at  the  great  age  of  eighty-eight.  His  last  hours  are 
described  in  the  following  letter  by  his  son,  Robert  x  Dale 
Owen,  which  appeared  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time,  and  is 
preserved  in  Mr.  G.  J.  Holyoake's  Last  Days  of  Robert  Owen. 


,  NOVEMBEE  17,  1858.      My  dear  father  passed    away 
this  morning,  at  a  quarter  before  seven,  and  passed  away  as  gently 


70  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

and  quietly  as  if  he  had  fallen  asleep.  There  was  not'  the  least 
struggle,  not  a  contraction  of  a  limb,  of  a  muscle,  not^m  expression 
of  pain  on  his  face.  His  breathing  gradually  became  slower  and 
slower,  until  at  last  it  ceased  so  imperceptibly,  that,  even  as  I  held 
his  hand,  I  could  scarcely  tell  the  moment  when  he  no  longer 
breathed.  His  last  words  distinctly  pronounced  about  twenty 
minutes  before  his  death,  were  « Belief  has  come.'  About  half  an 
hour  before  he  said  £  Very  easy  arid  comfortable.' " 

Owen's  remains  were  interred  in  the  churchyard  of  St. 
Mary's,  Newtown,  and  as  the  law  then  stood,  the  minister 
had  a  right,  which  he  exercised,  of  reading  the  Church  of 
England  burial  service  over  the  .heretic's  coffin,  and  the  Free- 
thinkers who  stood  round  the  grave  had  to  bear  the  mockery 
as  quietly  as  possible.  In  Owen's  case,  as  in  Carl  Lie's,  .the 
Church  appropriated  the  'heretic's  corpse.  Even  Darwin's 
body  rests  in  Westminster  Abbey,  and  that  is  all  of  him  the 
Church  can  boast. 


THOMAS  PAINE. 

George  Washington  has  been  called  the  hero  of  American 
Independence,  but  Thomas  Paine  shares  with  him  the  honon 
The  sword  of  the  one,  and  the  pen  of  the  other,  were  both, 
necessary  in  the  -  conflict  which  prepared  the  ground  fbr 
building  the  Eepublic  of  the  United  States.  While  the 
farmer-general  fought  with  unabated  hope  in  the  darkest 
hours  of  misfortune,  the  soldier-: author  wrote  the  stirring 
appeals  which  kindled  and  sustained  enthusiasm  in  tho 
sacred  caus'e  of  liberty.  Common  Sense  was  the  precursor  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  <  The  Bights  of  Man,  subse- 
quently written  and  published  in  England,  advocated  the 
same  principles  where  they  were  equally  required.  Eeplied 
to  by  Government  in  a  prosecution  for  treason,  it  brought 
the  author  so  near  to  the  gallows  that  he  was  only  saved  by 
flight.  Learning  afterwards  that  the  Eights  of  Man  can 
never  be  realised  while  the  people  are  deluded  and  degraded 
by  priestcraft  and  superstition,  Paino  attacked  Christianity 
in  The  Age  of  Reason.  That  vigorous,  logical,  and  witty 
volume  has  converted  thousands  of  Christians  to  Free- 
thought.  It  was  answered  by  bishops,  denounced  by  the 


THOMAS  PAINE,  71 

clergy,  and  prosecuted  for  blasphemy.  But  it  was  eagerly 
read  in  fields  and  workshops  ;  brave  men  fought  round  it  as 
a  standard  of  freedom ;  and  before  the  battle  ended  the  face 
of  society  was  changed. 

Thomas  Paine  was  born  at  Thetford,  in  Norfolk,  on 
January  29,  1736.  His  scepticism  began  at  the  early  age  of 
eight,  when  he  was  shocked  by  a  sermon  on  the  Atonement, 
which  represented  God  as  killing  his  own  son  when  he  could 
not  revenge  himself  in  any  other  way.  Becoming  acquainted 
with  Dr.  Franklin  in  London,  Paine  took  his  advice  and 
emigrated  to  America  in  the  autumn  of  1774.  A  few  months 
later  his  Common  Sense  announced  the  advent  of  a  masterly 
writer.  More  than  a  hundred  thousand  copies  were  sold, 
yet  Paine  -lost  money  by  the  pamphlet,  for  he  issued  it,  like 
all  his  other  writings,  at  the  lowest  price  that  promised  to 
cover  expenses.  Congress,  in  1777,  appointed  him  Secretary 
to  the  Committee  for  Foreign  Affairs.  Bight  years  later  it 
granted  him  three  thousand  dollars  on  account  of  his  "  early, 
unsolicited,  and  continued  labors  in  explaining  the  principles 
of  the  late  Revolution."  In  the  same  year  the  State  of  Pen- 
sylvania  presented  him  with  £500,  and  th&  State  oj  New 
York  gave  him  three  hundred  acres  of  valuable  land.- 

Returning  to  England  in  1787,  Paine  devoted  his  abilities 
fee  engineering.  He  invented  the  arched  iron  bridge,  and  tho 
first  structure  of  that  kind  in  the  world,  the  cast-iron  bridge 
over  the  Wear  at  Siinderland,  was  made  from  his  model.  Yet 
he  appears  to  have  derived  no  more  profit  from  this  than 
from  his  writings. 

Burke' s  Reflections  appeared  in  1790.  Paine  lost  no  time 
in  replying,  and  his  Eights  of  Man  were  sold  by  the  hundred 
thousand.  The  Government  tried  to  suppress  the  work  by 
bribery ;  and  that  failing,  a  prosecution  was  begun.  Paine's 
defence  was  conducted  by  Erskine,  but  the  .jury  returned  a 
verdict  of  Guilty  "  without  the  trouble  of  deliberation."  The 
intended  victim  of  despotism  was,  however,  beyond  its  reach. 
He  had  been  elected  by  the  departments  of  Calais  and  Ver- 
sailles to  sit  in  the  National  Assembly.  A  splendid  reception 
awaited  him  at  Calais,  and  his  journey  to  Paris  was  marked  by 
popular  demonstrations.  At  the  trial  of  Louis  XVI.,  he  spoke 


72  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

and  voted  for  banishment  instead  of  execution.  He  was  one 
of  the  Committee  appointed  to  frame  the  Constitution  of 
1793,  but  in  the  close  of  that  year,  having  become  obnoxious 
to  the  Terrorists,  he  was  deprived  of  his  seat  as  **  a  foreigner," 
and  imprisoned  in  the  Luxembourg  for  no  better  reason.  At 
the  time  of  his  arrest  he  had  written  the  first  part  of  the 
Age  of  Reason.  While  in.  prison  he  composed  the  second 
part,  and  as  he  expected  every  day  to  be  guillotined,  it  was 
penned  in  the  very  presence  of  Death. 

Liberated  on  the  fall  of  Robespierre  Paine  returned  to 
Ajnerica;  not,  however,  without  great  difficulty,  for  the  British 
cruiser$  were  ordered  to  intercept  him.  From  1802  till  his 
death  he  wrote  and  published  many  pamphlets  on  religious 
and  other  topics,  including  the  third  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason. 
His  last  years  were  full  of  pain,  caused  by  an  abscess  in  the 
side,  which  was  brought  on  by  his  imprisonment  in  Paris. 
He  expired,  after  intense  suffering,  on  June  8,  1809,  placidly 
and  without  a  struggla5 ' 

Paine's  last  hours  were  disturbed  by  pious  visitors  who 
wished  to  save  his  immortal  soul  from  the  wrath  of  God. 

«*  One  afternoon  a  very  old  lady,  dressed  in  a  large  scarlet-hooded 
cloak,  knocked  at  the  door  and  inquired  for  Thomas  Paine.  Mr. 
Jarvis,  with  whom  Mr.  Paine  resided,  told  her  he  was  asleep.  'I 
an\  very  sorry,'  she  said,  e  for  that,  for  I  want  to  see  him  particu- 
larly/ Thinking  it  a  pity  to  make  an  old  woman  call  twice,  Mr. 
Jarvis  took  her  into  Mr.  Paine's  bedroom  and  awoke  him.  He 
rose  upon  one  elbow  j  then,  with  an  expression  of  eye  that  made 
the  old  woman  stagger  back  a  step  or  two,  he  asked  «  What  do  you 
want  ? '  'Is  your  name  Paine  ? '  «  Yes.'  « Well  then,  I  come  from 
Almighty  God  to  tell  you,  that  if  you  do  not  repent  of  your  sins, 
and  believe  in  our  blessed  Savior  Jesus  Christ,  you  will  be  damned 
and — '  «  Poh,  poh,  it  is  not  true  ;  you  were  not  sent  with  any  such 
impertinent  message  :  Jarvis  make  her  go  away — pshaw  !  he  would 
not  send  such  a  foolish  ugly  old  woman  about  his  messages :  go 
away,  go  back,  shut  the  door.' "  a 

Two  weeks  before  his  death,  his  conversion  was  attempted 
by  two  Christian  ministers,  the  Eev.  Mr.  Milledollar  and  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Cunningham. 

"  The  latter  gentleman  said,  « Mr.  Paine,  we  visit  you  as  friends 
and  neighbors  :  you  have  now  a  full  view  of  death,  you  cannot  live 

*  Life  of  Thomas  Paine.     By  Clio  Eickman.     1819.     P.  187. 
«  Bickman,  pp.  182—183. 


THOMAS   PAINE.  73 

long,  and  whoever  does  not  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  will  assuredly 
be  damned.'  « Let  me,'  said  Mr.  Paine,  <  have  none  of  your  popish 
stuff;  get  away  with  you,  good  morning,  good  morning.'.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Milledollar  attempted  to  address  him,  but  he  was  inter- 
rupted in  the  same  language.  "When  they  were  gone  he  said  to 
Mrs.  Hedden,  his  housekeeper,  'do  not  let  them  come  here  again* 
they  intrude  upon  me.'  They  soon  renewed  their  visit,  but  Mrs. 
Hedden  told  them  they  could  not  be  admitted,  and  that  she  thought 
the  attempt  useless,  for  if  G-od  did  not  change  his  mind,  she  was 
cure  no  human  power  could."7 

Another  of  these  busybodies  was  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hargrove, 
&  Swedenborgian  or  New  Jerusalemite  minister.  This  gentle- 
man told  Paine  that  his  sect  had  found  the  key  for  interpreting 
the  Scriptures,  which  had  been  lost  for  four  thousand  years. 
"  Then,"  said  Paine,  "  it  must  have  been  very  rusty." 

Even  his  medical  attendant  did  not-  scruple  to  assist  in  this 
pious  enterprise.  Dr.  Mauley's  letter  to  Cheetham,  one  of 
Paine*  s  biographers*,*  says  that  he  visited  the  dying  sceptic  at 
midnight  June  5-6,  two  days  before  he  expired.  After  tor- 
menting him  with  many  questions,  to  which  he  made  no 
answer,  Dr.  Manley  proceeded  as  follows : 

"  Mr.  Paine,  you  have  not  answered  my  questions :  will  you 
answ.er  them  ?  Allow  me  to  ask  again,  do  you  believe,  or — let  me 
qualify  the  question — do  you  wish  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  Son  of  God  ?  After  a.  pause  of  some  minutes  he  answered,  « I 
hcwe  no  wish  to  believe  on  that  subject.'  I  then  left  him,  and  know 
not  whether  he  afterwards  spoke  to  any  person  on  the  subject." 

Sherwiu  confirms  this  Etatement.  He  prints  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Clark,  who  spoke  to  Dr.  Manley  on  the  subject.  '*  I  asked 
him  plainly,"  says  Mr.  Clark,  "  Did  Mr.  Paine  recant  his  reli- 
gious sentiments  ?  I  would  thank  you  for  an  explicit  answer, 
air.  He  said,  '  No,  he  did  not'  "* 

Mr.  Willet  Hicks,  a  Quaker  gentleman  who  frequently  called 
on  Paine  in  his  last  illness,  as  a  friend  and  not  as  a  soul- 
enatcher,  bears  similar  testimony.  "In  'some  serious 
conversation  I  had  with  him  a  short  time  before  his  death," 
said  Mr.  Hicks,  "  he  said  his  sentiments  .respecting  the 
Christian  religion  were  precisely  the  same  as  they  were  when 
he  wrote  the  Age  of  Reason.1'9 

Lastly,  we  have  the  testimony  of  Cheetham  himself,  who 

'  » .Bickman,  p.  184.  »  Sherwin's  Life  of  Paine,  p.  225. 

9  Cheetham's  Life  of  Paine,  p.  152. 


74  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

was  compelled  to  apologise  for  libelling  Paine  during  his  life, 
and  whose  biography  of  the  great  sceptic  is  a  continuous  libeL 
.Even  Cheetham  is  bound  to  admit  that  Paine  "  died  as  he  had 
lived,  an  enemy  to  the  Christian  religion.'* 

Notwithstanding  this  striking  harmony  of  evidence  as  to- 
Paine's  dying  in  the  principles  of  Freethought,  the  story  of 
his  "  recantation  "  gradually  developed,  until  at  last  it  was 
told  to  the  children  in  Sunday-schools,  and  even  published  by 
the  Religious  Tract  Society.  Nay,  it  is  being  circulated  to 
this  very  day,  as  no  less  true  than  the  gospel  itself,  "although 
it  was  triumphantly  exposed  by  "William  Oobbett  over  sixty 
years  ago.  "  This  is  not  a  question  of  religion,"  said  Oobbett, 
"  it  is  a  question  of  moral  truth.  "Whether  Mr.  Paine's 
opinions  were  correct  or  erroneous,  has  nothing  to  do  with 
this  matter." 

Oobbett  investigated  the  libel  on  Paine  on  the  very  spot 
where  it  originated.  Getting  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter,  he 
found  that  the  source  of  the  mischief  was  Mary  Hinsdale,  who 
had  formerly  been  a  servant  to  Mr.  Willet  Hicks.  This  gentle- 
man sent  Paine  many  little  delicacies  in  his  last  illness;  and 
Mary  Hinsdale  conveyed  them.  According  to  her  story, 
Paine  made  a  recantation  in  her  presence,  a*nd  assured  her 
that  if  ever  the  Devil  had  an  agent  on  earth,  he  who  wrote 
the  Age  of  Reason  was  undoubtedly  that  person.  "When  she 
was  hunted  out  by  Oobbett,  however,  "  she  shuffled,  she  evaded, 
she  affected  not  to  understand,"  and  finally  said  she  had  "  no 
recollection  of  any  perspn  or  thing  she  saw  at  Thomas  Paine's 
house."  Cobbett's  summary  o£  the  whole  matter  commends 
itself  to  every  sensible  reader. 

«  This  is,  I  think,  a  pretty  good  instance  of  the  lengths  to  which 
'hypocrisy  -will  go.  The  whole  story,  as  far  aa  it  relates  to  recan- 
tation, ...  is  a  lie  from  beginning  to  end.  Mr.  Paine  declares  in 
his  last  Will  that  he  retains  all  his  publicly  expressed  opinions  as 
to  religion.  His  executors,  and  many  other  gentlemen  of  undoubted 
veracity,  had  the  same  declaration  from  his  dying  lips.  Mr.  "Willet 
Hicks  visited  him  to  nearly  the  last.  This  gentleman  says  that 
there  was  no  change  of  opinion  intimated  to  him;  and  will  any 
man  believe  that  Paine  would  have  withheld  from  Mr.  Hicks  that 
which  he  was  so  forward  to  communicate  to  Mr.  Hicks's  servant 
girl?"  » 

•  >    Republican,  February  13,  1824,  ToL  1X1,  p.  221. 


THOMAS   PAIHE.  75 

I  have  already  said  that  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason 
was  entrusted  to  Joel  Barlow  when  Paine  was  imprisoned  at 
Paris,  and  the  second  part  was  written  in  gaol  in  the  very 
presence  of  Death.  Dr.  Bond,  an  English  surgeon,  who  was 
by  no  means  friendly  to  Paine's  opinions,  visited  him  in  tb^ 
Luxembourg,  and  gave  the  following  testimony  : 

"  Mr.  Paine,  while  hourly  expecting  to  die,  read  to  me  parts  of 
Ms  Age  of  Reason ;  and  every  night  when  .1  left  him  to  be  separately 
locked  up,  and  expected  not  to  see  him  alive  in  the  morning,  he 
always  expressed  his  firm  belief  in  the  principles  of  that  book,  and 
begged  I  would  tell  the  world  such  were  his  dying  opinions."  2 

Surely  when  a  work  was  written  in  such  circumstances,  it 
is  absurd  to  charge  the  author  with  recanting  his  opinions 
through  fear  of  death.  Citing  once  more  the  words  of  his 
enemy  Cheethain,  it  is  incontestible  that  Thomas  Paine  '•'  died 
as  he  had  lived,  an  enemy  to  the  Christian  religion." 

One  of  Paine's  intimate  friends,  Colonel  Fellows,  was  met 
by  Walt  Whitman,  the  American  poet,  soon  after  1840  in 
New  York.  Whitman  became  well  acquainted  with  the 
Colonel,  who  was  then  about  78  years  of  age,  and  describes 
him  as  **  a  remarkably  fine  old  man."  From  conversations 
with  him,  Whitman  became  convinced  that  Paine  had 
been  greatly  calumniated.  Thirty-five  years  later,  address- 
ing a  meeting  at  Lincoln  Hall,  Philadelphia,  on  Sunday 
January  28,  1887,  the  democratic  poet  said :  "  Thomas  Paine 
had  a  noble  personality,  as  exhibited  in  presence,  face,  voice, 
dress,  manner,  and  what  may  be  called  his  atmosphere  and 
magnetism,. especially  the  later  years  of  his  life.  I  am  sure 
of  it.  Of  the  foul  and  foolish  fictions  yet  told  .about  the 
circumstances  of  his  decease,  the  absolute  fact  is  that  as  he 
lived  a  good  life,  after  its  kind,  he  died  calmly  and  philo- 
sophically, as  became  him."  3 

1  Kickman,  p.  194. 

•  Walt  Whitman,  Specimen  JDcw/s  in  America,  (English  edition), 
p.  150. 


76  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 


COTJETLANDT   PALMEE. 

Courtlandt  Palmer  was  born  on  March  25,  1843.  He  was 
of  good  family  and  independent  fortune,  -which  he  taxed  for 
the  support  oT  advanced  causes.  He  was  President  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  Olub  in  New  Tork,  established  for  the 
free  discussion  of  "  burning"  questions  in  religion  and  philo- 
sophy. Among  its  members  was  the  great  Freethought 
orator,  Colonel  E.  G.  Ingersofl,  whom  Palmer  desired  to 
speak  at  his  grave  if  the  malady  from  which  he  suffered 
should  prove  fatal.  Pour  months  before  his  death,  he  ad- 
dressed the  following  letter  to  Colonel  Ingersoll  : 


YOEK,  March  16,  1888 

MY  DEAE  FEIEND  :  When  after  my  life's  fitful  fever,  I  :shall 
start  upon  the  long  sleep  of  death,  I  shall  want  T.  B.  "Wakeman 
and  you  to  say  above  my  ashes  the  last  good-bye  words  —  he  first, 
you  second  !  Not  more  than  fifteen  minutes  each. 

"  When  I  use  the  word  «  ashes  '  I  mean  it  literally,  as  I  wish 
my  remains  to  be  cremated. 

M  If  it  be  thought  best  to  make  my  funeral  a  public  one,  I  wish 
Siegfried's  Funeral  March  performed.  I  shall  write  Mr.  Walter 
Damrosch  to  this  effect. 

*  I  shall  oiot  be  buried  from  any  Christian  church,  nor  do  I  wish 
any  Christian  hymn  sung.     iLet  one  song  be  a  pean  of  triumph. 
-    "Yours  very  affectionately,        COUETLANDT  PALMER. 

«  To  COL.  E.  G.  INGEESOLL. 

««  P.S  __  I  have  shown  this  to  my  wife.  C.  PALMEB." 

Mrs.  Palmer,  however,  did  not  quite  share  her  husband's 
Agnosticism.  She  felt  that  it  would  be  a  relief  to  her  if  some 
liberal  Christian  minister  said  a  few  words  over  her  husband's 
corpse.  Out  of  tenderness  for  her  feelings  he  consented  to 
the  proposal.  Accordingly  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Mr.  Wakeman  on  the  very  day  before  his  death  : 

*  BEANDO^,  VT.,  July  22,  1888. 

"  DEAB  WAKEMAJT,  —  I  should  not  wonder  if,  ere  this  reaches  you, 
life's  fitful  fever  over,  I  might,  be  sleeping  soundly  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  waking,  and  that  is  so  full  of  peace. 

'"I  am  suffering  from  an  acute  attack  of  peritonitis  that  began 
less  than  a  week  ago,  and  has  kept  me  in,  fever  and  pain  since 
then,  relieved  only  by  morphine. 

*'  I  shall  send  some  memoranda  to-morrow  about  my  funeral,  in 
ase  a  proposed  operation,  which  the  doctors  deem  necessary  to 


OOUBTLANDT   PALMER.  77 

my  recovery,  should  not  terminate  as  they  hope.    My  secretary- 
has  all  of  my  writings. 

f«  I  think  my  little  poems,  called  « The  Future '  and  '  The  Kew- 
born  Soul/  had  best  be  read  at  my  funeral.  From  the  latter, 
however,  reject  the  more  abstruse  verses,  in  reading. 

« Mrs.  Palmer  is  very  anxious  to  find  some  liberal  theologian 
who  will  officiate  with  Ingersoll.  In  that  case,  probably  j-ou  had 
beet  withdraw,  because  the  most  effective  tribute  I  can  receive 
anyhow  is  a  short  encomium  as  a  Freethinker,  and  Ingersoll's 
eloquence  will  accomplish  this  better  even  "than  your  knowledge 
and  friendship.  Please  consult  Mrs.  Palmer,  Mr.  D.  G.  Thompson, 
and  Col.  Ingersoll  about  details  of  funeral. 

*  You  and  I  have  stood  together  many  long  years  as  religious 
co-believers  in  this  world.  And,  with  no  knowledge  of  a  life 
beyond  the  grave,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  in  the  expected 
presence  of  death,  that  the  Beligion  of  Humanity  is  a  faith  to  live 
and  die  by. 

"I  have  asked  Mrs.  Palmer,  in  the 'settlement  of  my  estate,  to- 
give  to  you  five  hundred  (500)  dollars  as  a  contribution  toward 
the  publication  of  your  works. 

"As  ever,  your  friend.        COUETLANDT  PALMER."* 

The  operation  referred  to  in  the  letter  was  performed  the 
next  4*7-  Palmer  was  perfectly  cool  and  collected,  saw  to 
the  arrangement  of  his.  papers  and  affairs,  and  gave  minute 
directions  as  to  his  funeral.  After  making  a  few  slight 
changes  in  Iris  will,  he  bade  all  the  members  of  his  family  an 
affectionate  farewell.  During  the  few  minutes  which  elapsed 
before  the  operation  began  he  conversed  cheerfully  with  those 
who  were  present.  "  A  man  should  believe,"  he  said,  "  only 
what  he  can  prove.  He  may  have  every  hope,  but  he  should 
only  believe  what  he  can  prove.  I  don't  say  that  there  is  not 
a  heaven,  but  I  don't  know  that  there  is.  That  is  my  belief." 
Finally  he  said : — "  The  general  impression  is  that  Free- 
thinkers are  afraid  of  death.  I  want  you  one  and  all  to'  tell 
the  whole  world  that  you  have  seen  a  Freethinker  die  without 
the  least  fear  of  what  the  hereafter  may  be." 

The  operation  was  performed  successfully,  but  Palmer  suc- 
cumbed to  the  shock,  and  sank  steadily  into  unconsciousness^ 
and  death.  His  funeral  took  place  on  July  26.  The  cere- 
monies were  performed  at  his  residence.  Among  the  mourners 
were  Freethinkers  like  Moncure  Con  way,  Edgar  Fawcett 
the  poet,  Judge  Lachman,  Professor  Eckel,  and  Commissioner 

*  Freethinkers?  Magazine  (Buffalo,vN.Y.),  September  1888,  p.  405, 


78  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

Andrews.  Macgrave  Coxe  played  and  sang  the  Hymn  to  the 
[Evening  Star  from  "  Tannhauser,"  and  Colonel  Ingersoll 
delivered  a  beautiful,  pathetic  address,  which  brought  tears 
to  the  eyes  of  his  listeners. 

When  the  ceremony  desired  by  Palmer  was  ended,  the  Rev. 
E.  H.  Newton  performed  a  religious  service  on  behalf  of  the 
wife  and  family ;  but  he  creditably  refrained  from  any  pious 
.allusions  to  the  dead  Agnostic,  and  confined  his  brief 
.address  to  a  eulogy  of  Palmer's  character.  Miss  Helen 
Gardener  was  indignant  at  this  "  mockery "  and  "  insult," 
but  apparently  she  was  ignorant  of  the  last  letter  to  Mr. 
Wakeman.  Palmer  protected  himself  from  slander  and  mis- 
representation, and  that  being  done,  he  gave  his  wife  per- 
mission to  arrange  for  what  would  be  a  solace  to  her  grief. 

Palmer  being  well  known  and  respected  in  New  York,  the 
press  was  not  silent  on  these  matters.  The  following 
Appeared  in  the  New  York  Graphic  of  July  26  : 

"No  candid  man,  whatever  his  religious  belief,  can  read  the 
account  of  Courtlandt  Palmer's  death  without  profound  admira- 
tion for  his  lofty  courage  and  consistency.  He  felt  that  he  could 
not  survive  the  operation  which  resulted  in  his  death.  With 
calmness  and  precision  he  arranged  the  details  of  his  funeral  ser- 
vices and  settled  his  business  affairs.  Then,  before  the  surgeons 
•came,  he  discoursed  upon  those  philosophical  and  Agnostic  views 
which  had  long  been  his  moral  guide.  His  last  words  were  these: 
*  The  general  impression  is  that  Freethinkers  are  afraid  of  death. 
I  want  you  one  and  all  to  tell  the  whole  world  that  you  have  seen 
a  Freethinker  die  without  the  .least  fear  of  what  the  hereafter 
may  be.' 

«  Here  was  a  death  worthy  of  Socrates. 

«  Through  some  singular  coincidence  most  of  the  stories  that 
have  been  given  to  the  world  professing  to  relate  the  death-bed 
scenes  of  noted  Freethinkers  have  told  of  their  abject  fear  and 
their  recantation  of  unorthodox  views  just  before  dissolution. 
Without  questioning  the  veracity  of  these  ecclesiastical  legends, 
it  is  highly  interesting  to  observe  the  peace  and  quietude  possible 
to  a  soul  conscious  of  no  wrong  intent  and  no  base  deed,  although 
deprived  of  the.  consolations  of  religion.  Courtlandt  Palmer's 
death  was  certainly  a  magnificent  vindication  of  his  self- 
^respect. ' 

«  Such  an  exhibition  ought  to  make  more  tolerant  men  of-  all 
creeds.  It  shows  that  the  human  mind  can  overcome  that  instinc- 
tive fear  of  death  common  to  all  mortality,  and  die  content  with- 
out  the  aid  of  pious  promises  or  immortal  expectations.  This' man 
died  as  became  a  man,  because  he  had  lived  as  became  one.  Before 


PALMEB.  79 

the  mystery  of  death  his  trust  in  himself  did  not  falter.  He  had 
•done  his  best,  and  he  left  the  rest  to  what  mi&ht  be  forthcoming. 
Happiest  of  men  are  those  whose  religious  convictions  are  unshak- 
able and  whose  lives  are  ordered,  according  to  the  teachings  of 
Jesus  Christ.  .  To  such  the  grave  has  no  mystery.  But  even  to 
those  less  happy,  who  see  after  this  life  only  into  the  twilight  of 
-an  unknown  country,  death  need  have  no  sting." 

The  New  York  World  of  July  27  contained  a  similar  refer- 
ence to  Palmer's  death;  and  the  name  of  this  journal  ia 
known  throughout  the  world : 

"  The  brave  and  even  cheerful  manner  in  which  that  pronounced 
Freethinker,  Courtlandt  Palmer,  met  his  end  cannot  fail  to  attract 
attention. 

« « The  general  impression  is,'  he  said,  just  before  submitting  to 
the  operation  which  he  was  assured  would  almost  inevitably,  be 
iatal,  '  that  Freethinkers  are  afraid  of  death.  I  want  y'ou  one  and 
All  to  tell  the  whole  world  that  you  have  seen  a  Freethinker  die 
-without  the  least  fear  of  what  the  hereafter  may  be.'  The  doomed 
man  conversed  cheerfully  with  hia  friends,  bade  the  members  of 
Jiis  family  an  affectionate  farewell,  provided  for  the  cremation  of 
his  remains,  hummed  a  tune  from  •*  Tannhauser '  which  he  asked 
should  be  sung  at  his  funeral,  and  then  faced  what  he  believed'  to 
be  an  eternal  sleep — like  one 

Who  wraps  the  drapery,  of  his  couch  about  him 
And  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 

« It  is  not  necessary  to  share  Mr.  Palmer's  Agnosticism — for  he 
only  said,  'I  don't  know  that  there  is.  not  a  heaven,  but  I  don't 
know  that  there  is* — to  admire  his  philosophic  courage  in  the  face 
of  death.  .  . 

«  His  life  had  fitted  him  fpr  the  ordeal.  A  rich  man,  he  Bym- 
pajthised  with  the  poor  and  sought  to  ameliorate  their  condition* 
He  felt  deeply  and  thought  strongly  on  social  questions.  If  hia 
theories  were  air  castles  he  at  least  tried  to  materialise  them,  lake 
Abou  Ben  Adhem,  he  c  loved  his  fellow-men.' 

•*  Colonel  Ingersoll'a  eloquent  tribute  to  his  friend  will  rank  lugh 
among  the  best  specimens  of  mortuary  eloquence." 

Palmer's  remains  were  taken  to  the  Long  Island  depdfc 
and  transported  to  Fresh  Pond,  where  they  were,  cremated. 
The  ashes  were  placed  in  an  urn  and  interred  in  Greenwood 
Cemetery. 


EABELAIS. 

Francois  Babelais,  "  the  grand  jester  of  France,"  as  Bacon 
oallB  him, 'was  born  at  Ohinon,  in  Touraine,  in  1483,  the  same 
year  in  which  Lnther  and  Baphael  saw  the  light.  He  joined 


80  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

the  Church  and  became  a  monk.  His  heretical  humor  brought 
him  into  trouble,  and  he  was  once  rescued  by  a  military  friend 
from  the  fopace,  a  form  of  burying  alive.  But  this  did  not 
damp  his  spirits,  though  it  made  him  cautious  ;  for  he  dreaded 
the  idea  of  being  burnt  alive  "like  a  herring,"  seeing  that  he 
was  "  dry  enough  already  by  nature."  He  veiled  his  profound 
wisdom  with  the  jolliest  buffoonery.  On  one  occasion  he 
printed  dme  (the  soul)  as  dne  (a  jackass)  several  times,  and 
said  it  was  a  printer's  blunder  !  "  Eabelais,"  says  Coleridge, 
"  had  no  mode  of  speaking  the  truth  in  those  days  but  in 
such  a  form  as  this  " ;  his  buffoonery  was  "  an  amulet  against 
the  monks  an,d  bigots."  Despite  the  plain  language  of 
Pantagruelt  Coleridge  maintained  that  "  the  morality  of  the 
work  is  of  the  most  refined  and  exalted  kind."5  Elsewhere 
the  same  great  poet  and  critic  said,  "  I  could  write  a  treatise 
in' proof  and  praise  of  the  morality 'and  moral  elevation  of 
Babelais'  -work,  which  would  make  the  church  stare  and  the 
conventicle'  groan." 8  Coleridge,  indeed,  classed  Babelais 
"  with  the  great  creative  minds  of  the  world,"  with  Shake- 
speare, Dante  and  Cervantes. 

"  Attempts  have  been  made,"  says  Mr.  Walter  Besant,  "  to 
prove  that  Babelais  was  a  Christian.  To  suppose  this  is,  in 
my  mind,  not  only  seriously  to  misunderstand  the  spirit  of 
his  book,  but  that  of  his  time."7  The  cure  of  Meudon  sapped 
the  Church  with  satire  from  within.  But  on  February  19i 
1552,  he  resigned  his  living  at  Meudon  and  -Le  Mans.  Mr. 
Besant  concludes  that  "  the  old  man,  now  that  life  was  drawing 
to  its  close,  now  that  his  friends  were  dead,  dispersed,  and  in 
exile,  discerned  at  last  the  wickedness  of  coritiiiuing  to  say 
masses,  which  were  to  him  empty  forms,  in  the  cause  of  a- 
Church  which  was  fall  of  absurdities  and  corruptions."8 

Many  of  his  friends  had  perished  in  prison  or  at  the  stake, 
but  Babelais  died  a  natural  death  in  his  bed.  His  end  came, 
it  is  said,  on  April  9,  1553,  at  a  house  in  the  Bue  des  Jardins, 
Paris.  Many  stories  were  told  of  his  death-bed,  and  may  be 
found  in  the  bibliophile  Jacob's  (Paul  Lacroix)  introduction. 

5  Table  Talk  (Bonn),  p.  197. 

•  Miscellanies,  Esthetic  and  Literary  (Bohn),  p.  127. 
»  Rabelais,  by  Walter  Besant,  p.  186.  «  P.  46. 


WINWOOD  READE.'  81 

to  the  Charpentier  edition  of  Rabelais'  works.  When  he  had 
received  the  extreme  nnction,  he  said  aloud  that  they  had 
greased  his  boots  for  the  great  journey.  When  the  priest  in 
attendance  asked  if  he  believed  in  the  real  presence  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  holy  wafer,  he  replied  meekly  :  "  I  believe  in  it, 
and  I  rejoice  therein ;  for  I  .think  I  see  my  God  as  he  was 
when  he  entered  Jerusalem,  triumphant  and  seated  on  an 
ass."  Towards  the  end.  they  put  on  his  Benedictine  robe; 
whereupon  he  punned  upon  a  Psalm — Beati  qui  morwnter  in 
Dommo.  A  messenger  from  Cardinal  du  Bellay  being 
brought  to  the  Bedside,  he  said  in  a  feeble  voice,  "  Tell  mori- 
seigneur  I  am  going  to  seek  the  great  Perhaps."  Gathering 
his  strength  for  a  last  effort,  he  cried  out  in  a  burst  of 
laughter,  "  Draw  the  curtain,  the  farce  is  over." 

These  stories  may  be  partly  apocryphal,  yet,  as  Jacob 
remarks,  they  are  "  in  keeping  with  the  character  of  Rabelais 
and.  the  spirit  of  his  writings." 


WINWOOD    READB. 

Winwood  Reade,  the  African  traveller  and  naturalist,  was 
a  nephew  of  Charles  Reade,  the  famous  novelist.  His 
researches  are  frequently  drawn  upon  in  Darwin's  Descent  of 
Man,  in  the  index  of  which  his  name  may  be  distinguished 
Turning  his  attention  to  literature,  he  wrote  the  Martyrdom 
of  Man,  a  most  remarkable  book,  showing  a  perfect  grasp  of 
human  evolution,  and  an  absolute  freedom  from  theology. 
This  was  followed  by  a  Freethought  novel,  The  Outcast 
Winwood  Reade  died  on  April  24,  1875.  A  prominent  obitu- 
ary notice  appeared  in  the  London  Daily  Telegraph  on  April 
27,  bearing  unmistakeable  evidence  of  having  been  written  by 
Charles  Reade.  It  says :  "  He  wrote  his  last  work,  The 
Outcast,  with  the  hand  of  death  upon  him.  Two  zealous 
friends  carried  him  out  to  Wimbledon,  and  there,  for  a  day 
or  two,  the  air  seemed  to  revive  him ;  but  on  Friday  night  ha 
began  to  sink,  and  on  Saturday  afternoon  died  in  the  arms  of 
his  beloved  uncle,  Mr.  Charles  Reade." 


82  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS 


MATYAMTE  BOLAND. 

Among  the  Girondists  who  perished  in  1793  was  Madame 
Eoland.  She'was  nourished  on  scepticism,  complains  0  arlyle ; 
but  he  allows  her  "  as  brave  a  heart  as  ever  beat  in  woman 8 
bosom."  "  Like  a  white  Grecian  statue,"  he  says,  **  serenely 
complete,  she  shines  in  that  black  wreck  of  things."  While 
in  prison  she  bore  herself  with  fortitude,  writing  her  Memoirs, 
and  addressing  cheerful  letters  to  her  daughter,  her  husband, 
and  her  friends.  Feeling  that  she  was  doomed,  she  deter- 
mined to  go  before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  alone.  M» 
Chaveau-Lagarde,  a  lawyer,  wished  to  defend  her,  but  she 
declined  his  services.  "  You  would  lose  your  life,"  she  said, 
"  without  saving  mine.  I  know  my  doom.  To-morrow  I  shall 
oease  to  exist."  On  October  9  she  was  driven  in  the  tumbril  to 
the  guillotine,  clad  in  white,  with  her  long  black  hair  hanging 
down  to  her  girdle.  With  her  was  a  prisoner  named  L am arche, 
whom  she  endeavored  to  cheer.  She  renounced  her  right  to 
be  executed  first,  so  that  her  dejected  companion  might  be 
spared  the  pain  of  seeing  her  blood.  Samson  would  not 
consent  to  this.  "  Will  you,1*  'she  gaily  asked,  "  refuse  a  lady 
her  last  request  P  *  and  he  yielded.  "  0  Liberty,  what  crimes 
are  committed  in  thy  name  !  "  she  exclaimed,  but  she  bowed 
before  the  statue  nevertheless,  knowing  that  Liberty  was  holy 
though  worshipped  mistakenly  with  cruel'rites. 

She  said  her  husband  would  not  survive  her,  and  he  did 
not.  On  learning  her  fate,  he  left  the  kind  friends  who  were 
harboring  him  at  Bpuen,  and  the  next  day  he  was  found  dead 
at  the  foot  of  a  tree  on  the  road  to  Paris.  He  had  thrust  a 
cane-sword  into  his  own  heart.  Beside  him  was  a  letter,  in 
which  he  said  that  he  "  died,  as  he  lived,  virtuous  and  hon  eat," 
refusing  to  **  remain  longer  on  an  earth  polluted  with 
crimes."  The  most  touching  feature  in  the  suicide  of  this 
stern  Republican  and  Freethinker  was  the  fact  that  by  taking 
his  own  life,  and  anticipating  the  Tribunal,  he  secured  his 
property  to  his  daughter. 

Authorities  t 

Carlyle,  French  Revolution,  Bk.  T.,  chap.  ii. 
Barrier e,  Memoires  Particuliers  de  Mine.  Roland. 


GEOEGE   SAND  83 


GEOKGE    SAND. 

George  Sand  was  the  pen-name  of  Amantine  Lucile  Aurore 
Dudnevant.  Her  maiden  name  was  Dupin.  She  was  born  at 
Paris  on  July  5,  1804,  and  she  died  at  Nohant  on  June  8, 
1876,  after  establishing  her  fame  as  one  of  the  finest  of  French 
prose  writers.  She  believed  in  God,  says  Plauchat,  but 
"  certainly  not  in  the  vengeful  and  merciless  God  of  the 
orthodox."  Her  last  work  was  a  critical  notice  of  Kenan's 
Dialogues  et  Fragments  Philosophique  in  Le  Temps,  only  a  month 
before  her  decease.  Towards  the  end  of  May  she  took  to  her 
bed,  from  which  she  never  rose  again.  She  was  suffering 
from  internal  paralysis,  and  medical  skill  was  of  no  avail. 
On  the  8th  of  June,  at  nine  in  the  morning,  she  "  expired  in 
calmness  and  serenity."8  Before  the  end  she  said :  "  It  is 
death ;  I  do  not  ask  for  it,  but  neither  do  I  regret  it.1'1 
George  Sand's  biographer  in  English,  Bertha  Thomas,  writes  : 

«  Up  to  the  last  hour  she  preserved  consciousness  and  lucidity. 
The  words,  *  Ne  touchez  pas  d,  la  verdure,'  among  the  last  that  fell 
from  her  lips,  were  understood  by  her  children,  who  knew  her 
wish  that  the  tree  should  be  undisturbed  under  which  in  the 
village  cemetery  she  was  soon  to  find  a  resting-place."  2 

Such  was  the  peaceful  death  of  the  great  writer,  whom  Mrs. 
Browning  hailed  in  two  glorious  sonnets  as  "  large-brained 
woman  and  large-hearted  man,"  and  whom  Flaubert  himself 
addressed  as  "  chere  maitre." 


SCHILLER. 

After  Goethe,  Schiller  is  the  greatest  of  German  poets. 
His  principles  were  those  of  a  Deist.  Like  Goethe,  he  had  no 
belief  in  Christianity,  and  but  little  respect  for  it  as  a  present- 
day  religion.  His "  best  works  were  written  during  the  last 
fifteen  years  of  his  life,  every  day  of  which  brought  its  of  load 
pain.  He  died  on  May  9, 1805,  in  his  forty-sixth  year,  having 
been  born  on  November  10,  1759.  Carlyle  writes  : 

9  Plauchat,  Galerie  Contenypprovin,  Pt.  II. 
1  George  Sand,  by  Bertha  Thomas,  p.  245.  »  Ibid.  _ 


84  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

«<  The  fiery  canopy  of  physical  suffering,  wnich  had  bewildered 
and  "blinded  his  thinking  faculties,  was  drawn  aside;  and  the  spirit 
of  Schiller  Jooked  forth  in  its  wonted  serenity,  once  again  before 
it  passed  away  forever.  After  noon  his  delirium  abated ;  about 
four  o'clock  he  fell  into  a  soft  sleep,  from  which  he  ere  long  awoke 
in  full  possession  of  his  senses.  Bestored  to  consciousness  in  that 
hour,  when  the  soul  is  cut  off  from  human  help,  and  man  must 
front  the  King  of  Terrors  on.  his  own  strength,  Schiller  did  not 
faint  or  fail  in  this  his  lasf  and  sharpest  trial:  Feeling  that  his 
end  was  come,  he  addressed  himself  to  meet  it  as  became  him; 
not  with  affected  carelessness  or  superstitious  fear,  but  with  the 
quiet  unpretending  manliness  which  had  marked  the  tenor  of  his 
life.  Of  his  friends  and  family  he  took  a  touching  but  a  tranquil 
farewell :  he  ordered  that  his  funeral  should  be  private,  without 
pomp  or  parade.'  Some  one  inquiring  how  he  felt,  he  said 
"Calmer  and  calmer;"  simple  but  memorable  words,  expressive  of 
the  mild  heroism  of  the  man.  About  six  he  sank  into  a  deep 
sleep  j  once  for  a  moment  he  looked  up  with  a  lively  air,  and  said, 
'  Many  things  were  growing  plain  and  clear  to  Kim!"  Again  he  closed 
his  eyes ;  and  his  sleep  deepened  and  deepened,  till  it  changed  into 
the  sleep  from  which  there  is  no  awakening ;  and  all  that  remained 
of  Schiller  was  a  lifeless  form,  soon  to  be  mingled  with  the  clods 
of  the  valley." » 

Schiller's  scepticism,  it  may  be  added,  appears  in  his  corres- 
pondence with  Goethe  more  than  in  any  of  his  other  writings. 


PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY. 

This  glorious  poet  of  Atheism  and  Republicanism  was  born 
at  Field  Place,  near  Horsham,  Sussex,  on  August  -4,  1792* 
His  whole  life  was  a  daring  defiance  of  the  tyranny  of  Custom. 
In  1811,  when  less  than  nineteen,  he  was  expelled  from  Oxford 
University  for  writing  The  Necessity  of  Atheism.  After  writing 
Queen  Malt  and  several  political  pamphlets,  besides  visiting 
Ireland  to  assist  the  cause  of  reform  in  that  unhappy  island, 
be  was  deprived  of  the  guardianship  of  his  two  children  by 
Lord  Chancellor  Eldon  on  account  of  his  heresy.  Leaving 
England,  he  went  to  Italy,  where  his  'principal  poems  were 
composed  with  remarkable  rapidity  during  the  few  years  of 
life  left  him.  His  death  occurred  on  July  8, 1822.  He  was 
barely  thirty,  yet  he  had  made  for  himself  a  deathless  fame 
as  the  greatest  lyrical  poet  in  English  literature. 

»  Life  of  ScMler,  by  Thomas  Carlyle,  p.  166. 


PEEOT  BTSSHE  SHELLEY.  85 

Shelley  was  drowned  in  a  small  yacht  off  Leghorn.  The 
only  other  occupants  of  the  boat  were  his  friend  Williams 
and  a  sailor  lad,  both' of  whom  shared  his  fate.  The  squall 
which  submerged  them  was  too  swifb  to  allow  of  their  taking 
proper  measures  for  their  safety.  Shelley's  body  was  re- 
covered. In  one  pocket  was  a  volume  of  JSschylus,  in  the 
other  a  copy  of  Keats's  poems,  doubled  back  as  if  hastily 
thrust  away.  He  had  evidently  been  reading  "Isabella  "  and 
"  Lamia,"  and  the  waves  cut  short  his  reading  for  ever. .  It 
was  an  ideal  end,  although  so  premature ;  for  Shelley  was 
fascinated  by  the  sea,  and  always  ezpresssed  a  preference  for 
death  by  drowning.  His  remains  were  cremated  on  the  sea- 
coast,  in  presence  of  Leigh  Hunt,  Trelawney,  and  -Byron. 
Trelawney  snatched  the  heart  from  the  Barnes,  and  it  is  still 
preserved  by  Sir  Percy  Shelley.  The  ashes  were  coffered, 
and  soon  after  buried  in  the  Protestant  cemetery  at  Borne, 
close  by  the  old  cemetery,  where  Keats  was  interred — a  beau- 
tiful open  space,  covered  in  summer  with  violets  and  daisies, 
of  which  Shelley  himself  had  written  "  It  might  make  one  in 
love  with  death  to  think  that  one  should  be  buried  in  so  sweet 
a  place."  Trelawney  planted  six  young  cypresses  and  four 
laurels.  On  the  tomb-stone  was  inscribed  a  Latin  epitaph  by 
Leigh  Hunt,  to  which  Trelawney  added  three  lines  •  from 
Shakespeare's  Tempest,  one  of  Shelley's  favorite  plays. 

PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY. 

COB    COEBXUM 

Natua  iv.  Aug.  MDOCXCII 
Obit  vii.  JuL  MDCCCXXIT 

«« Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change 
Into  something  rich  and  strange." 

..  And  there,  at  Borne,  shadowed  by  cypress  and  laurel 
covered  with  sweet  flowers,  and  surrounded  by  the  crumbling 
ruins  of  a  dead  empire,  rests  the  heart  of  hearts. 

Shelley's  Atheism  cannot  be  seriously  disputed,  and  Tre- 
lawney makes  a  memorable  protest  against  the  foolish  and 
futile  attempts  to  explain  it  away. 

"  The  principal  fault"  I  have  to  find  is  that  the  Shelley  an  writers, 
being  .Christians  themselves,  seem  to  think  that  a  man  of  genius 


8G  INFIPEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

caimot  be  an  Atheist,  and  so  they  strain  their  own  faculties  to  dis- 
prove  what  Shelley  asserted  from  the  very  earliest  stage  of  his 
career  to  the  last  day  of  his  life.  He  ignored  all  religions  as  super- 
stitions. .  .  A  clergyman  wrote  in  the  visitors'  book  at  the  Mer 
de  Glace,  Chamouni,  something  to  the  following  effect : « No  one 
can  view  this  sublime  scene,  and  deny  the  existence  of  God.' 
Under  which  Shelley,  using  a  Greek  phrase,  wrote  « P.  B.  Shelley, 
Atheist,'  thereby  proclaiming  his  opinion  to  all  the  world.  And 
he  never  regretted  having  done  so."  * 

Trelawney's  words  should  be  printed  on  the  forefront  of 
Shelley's  works,  so  tjiat  it  might  never  be  forgotten  that 
"  the  poet  of  poets  and  purest  of  men  "  was  an  Atheist. 


BENEDICT  SPINOZA. 

Benedict  Spinoza  (Baruch  Despinosa)  was  born  at  Amster- 
dam on  November  24,  1632.  His  father  was  one  of  the 
Jewish  fugitives  from  Spain  who  settled  in  the  Netherlands 
to  escape  the  dreaded  Inquisition.  With  a  delicate  constitu- 
tion, and  a  mind  more  prone  to  study  than  amusement,  the 
boy  Spinoza  gave  himself  to  learning  and  meditation.  He 
was  soon  compelled  to  break  away  from  the  belief  of  his 
family  and  his  teachers ;  and  after  many  vain  admonitions, 
he  was  at  length  excommunicated,  His  anathema  was 
pronounced  in  the  synagogue  on  July  27, 1656.  It  was  a 
frightful  formula,  cursing  him  by  day  and  night,  waking  and 
sleeping,  sitting  and  standing,  and  prohibiting  every  Jew  from 
holding  any  communication  with  him,  or  approaching  him 
within  a  distance  of  four  cubits.  Of  course  it  involved  his 
exile  from  home,  and  soon  afterwards  he  narrowly  escaped 
a  fanatic's  dagger. 

The  rest  of  Spinoza's  life  was  almost  entirely  thai;  of  a 
scholar^  He  earned  a  scanty  livelihood  by  polishing  lenses, 
but  his  physical  wants  were  few,  and  he  subsisted  on  a  few 
pence  per  day.  His  writings  are  such  as  the  world  will  not 
willingly  let  die,  and  his  Ethics  places  him  on  the  loftiest 
heights  of  philosophy,  where  his  equals  and^  companions  may 
be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  a  single  hand.  Through  Goethe 
and  Heine,  he  has  exercised  a  potent  influence  on  German, 

Records  of  Byron  and  Shelley,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  243—245. 


.BENEDICT   SPINOZA.  87 

and  therefore  on  European  thought.  His  subtle  Pantheism 
identifies  God  with  Nature,  and  denies  to  deity  all  the  attri- 
butes of  personality. 

His  personal  appearance  is  described  by  Golems,  the  Dutch 
pastor,  who  some  years  after  his  death  gathered  all  the  in- 
formation about  him  that  could  be  procured.  He  was  of 
middle  height  and  slenderly  built ;  with  regular  features,  a 
broad  and  high  forehead,  large  dark  lustrous  eyes,  fall  dark 
eyebrows,  and  long  curling  hair  of  the  same  hue.  His 
character  was  worthy  of  his  intellect.  He  made  no  enemies 
except  by  his  opinions.  "  Even  bitter  opponents,"  as  Dr. 
Martineau  says,  "  could  not  but  own  that  he  was  singularly 
blameless  and  unexacting,  kindly  and,  disinterested.  Chil- 
dren, young  men,  servants,  all  who-  stodd  to  him  in  any  rela- 
tion of  dependence,  seem  to  haver  felt  the  charm  of  his  affa- 
bility and  sweetness  of  temper."  * 

Spinoza  was  lodging,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  with  a  poor 
Dutch  family  at  the  Hague.  They  appear  to  have  regarded 
him  with  veneration,  and  to  have  given  him  every  attention. 
But  the  climate  was  too  rigorous  for  his  Southern  tempera- 
ment. 

« The  strict  and  sober  regimen  which  was  recommended  by 
frugality  was  not  tmsuited  to  his  delicate  constitution ;  but,  in 
spite  of  it,  bis  emaciation  increased ;  and,  though  he  made  m 
change  in  his  habits,  he  became-  so  far  aware  of  his  decline  as  on 
Sunday,  the  20th  of  February,  1677,  to  send  for  his  medical  friend 
Meyer  from  Amsterdam.  That  afternoon  Van  der  Spijck  and  his 
wife  had  been  to  church,  in  preparation  for  the  Shrovetide  com- 
munion next  day :  and  on  their  return  at  4  p.m.,  Spinoza  had  come 
Downstairs  and,  whilst  smoking  his  pipe,  talked  with  them  long  about 
the  sermon.  He  went  early  to  bed ;  but  was  up  again  next  morning 
(apparently  before  the  arrival  of  Meyer),  in  time  to  come  down 
and  converse  with  his  host  and  hostess  before  they  went  to  church. 
The  timely  appearance  of  the  physician  enabled  her  to  leave 
over  the  fire  a  fowl  to  be  boiled  for  a  basin  of  broth.  This,  as 
well  as  some  of  the  bird  itself,  Spinoza  took  with  a  relish,  on  their 
return  from  church  about  midday.  There  was  nothing  to  prevent 
the  Van  der  Spijcks  from  going  to  the  afternoon  service.  But  oa 
coming  out  of  the  church  they  were  met  by  the  startling  news 
that  at  3  p.m.  Spinoza  had  died ;  no  one  being  with  him  but  his 
physician."  « 

•  A  Study  of  Spinoza.    By  Dr.  James  Martineau,  p.  104. 
«  Ibid,  pp.  101,  102. 


88  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

Dr.  Martineau  hints  that  perhaps  "the  philosopher  and 
the  physician  had  arranged  together  and  carried  out  a  method 
of  euthanasia,"  but  as  he  admits  that  "  there  is  no  tittle  of 
evidence  "  for  such  a  thing,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  he 
makes  such  a  gratuitous  suggestion. 

Pious  people,  who  judged  every  philosopher  to  be  an 
Atheist,  reported  that  Spinoza  had  cried  out  several  times  in 
dying,  "  Oh  God,  have  mercy  on  me,  a  miserable  sinner ! " 
Colerus  investigated  this  story  and  found  it  an  invention. 
Dr.  Meyer  was  the  only  person  with  Spinoza  when  he  died, 
BO  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  scandal -mongers  to  have 
heard  his  last  words.  Besides,  his  hostess  denied  the  truth 
of  all  such  statements,,  adding  that  "  what  persuaded  her  of 
the  contrary  was  that,  since  he  began  to  fail,  he  bad  always 
shown  in  his  sufferings  a  stoical  fortitude." * 


DAVID  FREDERICK  STRAUSS. 

Strauss's  Life  of  Jesus  once  excited  universal  controversy 
in,  the  Christian  world,  and  the  author's  name  was  opprobrious 
in  orthodox  circles.  So  important  was  the  work,  that  it  was 
translated  into  French  by  Littre  and  into  English  by  George 
Eliot.  Subsequently,  Strauss  published  a  still  more  heterodox 
book,  The  Old  Faith  and  the  New>  in  which  he  assex-ts  that 
"  if  ,we  would  speak  as  honest,  upright  men,  we  must  ackno^- 
ledge  we  are  no  longer  Christians,"  and 'strenuously  repu- 
diates all  the  dogmas  of  theology  as  founded  on  ignorance  and 
superstition. 

This  eminent  German  Freethinker  died  in  the  spring  of 
1874,  of  cancer  in  the  stomach,  one  of  the  most  excruciating 
disorders. 

"But  in  these  very  sufferings  the  mental  greatness  and  moral 
strength  of  the  sufferer  proclaimed  their  most  glorious  victory. 
He  was  fully  aware  of  his  condition.  With  unshaken  firmness  he 
adhered  to  the  convictions  which  he  had  openly  acknowledged  in 
his  last  work  [The  Old  Faiih  and  the  New]  and  he  never  for  ^  a 
moment  repented  having  written  them.'N  But  with  these  convic- 

»  La,  Vie  de  Spinoza,  par  Colerus:    Saisset's  (Ewrres   de 
Yol.  II.,  p.  xxx vii. 


JOHN   TOLANB.  89 

tions  he  met  death  with  such  repose  and  with  such  unclouded 
serenity  of  mind,  that  it  was  impossible  to  leave  his  sick  room 
without  the  impression  of  a  moral  sanctity  which  we  all  the  more 
surely  receive  from  greatness  of  soul  and  mastery  of  mind  over 
matter,  the  stronger  are  the  hindrances  in  the  surmounting  of 
which  it  is  manifested."  8 

Strauss  left  directions  for  his  funeral.  He  expressly  for- 
bade all  participation  of  the  Church  in  the  ceremony,  but  on 
the  day  of  his  interment  a  sum  of  money  was  to  be  given  to 
the  poor.  "  On  February  10  [1874]  therefore,"  says  his  bio- 
brapher,  "he  was  buried  without  ringing  of  bells  or  the 
presence  of  a  clergyman,  bub  in  the  most  suitable  manner, 
and  amid  the  lively  sympathy  of  all,  far  and  near." 


JOHH  TOLAND. 

Toland  was  one  of  the  first  to  call  himself  a  Freethinker. 
He  was  born  at  Redcastle,  near  Londonderry,  in  Ireland,  on 
November  30,  1670 ;  and  he  died  at  Putney  on  March  11, 
1722.  His  famous  work  Christianity  not  Mysterious  was 
brought  before  Parliament,  condemned  as  heretical,  and 
ordered  to  be  burnt  by  the  common  hangman.  One  member 
proposed  that  the  author  himself  should  be  burnt ;  and  as 
Thomas  Aitkenhead  had  been  hung  at  Edinburgh  for  blas- 
phemy in  the  previous  year,  it  is  obvious  that  Toland  in- 
curred great  danger  in  publishing  his  views. 

Among  other  writings,  Toland's  Letters  to  Serena  achieved 
distinction.  They  were  translated  into  French  by  the  famous 
Baron  D'Hplbach,  and  Lange,  in  his  great  History  of  Materi- 
alism, says  that  "  The  second  letter  handles  the  kernel  of  the 
whole  question  of  Materialism."  Lange  also  says  that 
"  Toland  is  one  of  those  benevolent  beings  who  exhibit  to  us 
a  great  character  in  the  complete  harmony  of  all  the  sides  of 
the  human  existence." 

For  some  years  before  his  death,  Toland  lived  in  obscure 
lodgings  with  a  carpenter  at  Putney.  His  health  was  broken, 

8  Edward  Zeller,  Daand  Frederick  Strauss  in  his  Life  and  Writings, 
p.  148. 


90  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

and  his  circumstances  were  poor.  His  las^  illness  was  pain- 
ful, but  he  bore  it  with  great  fortitude.  According  to,  one 
of  his  most  intimate  friends,  he  looked  earnestly  at  those  in 
the  room  a  few  minutes  before  breathing  his  last,  and  on 
being  asked  if  he  wanted  anything, '  he  answered  "  I  want 
nothing  but  death."  •  His  biographer,  Des  Maizeaux,  says 
that  "  he  looked  upon  death  without  the  least  perturbation 
of  mind,  bidding  farewell  to  those  that  were  about  hi™,  and 
telling  them  he  was  going  to  sleep." 


LUOILIO  VANIHL 

Lucilio  Vanini  was  born  at  Taurisano,  near  Naples,  in 
1584  or  1585.  He  studied  theology,  philosophy,  physics, 
astronomy,  medicine,  and  civil  and  ecclesiastical  law.  At 
Padua  he  became  a  doctor  of  canon  and  civil  law,  and  was 
ordained  a  priest.  Resolving  to  visit  the  academies  of 
Europe,  he  travelled  through  France,  England,  Holland,  and 
Germany.  According  to  Fathers  Mersenne  and  Garasse,  he 
formed  a  project  of  promulgating  Atheism  over  the  whole 
of  Europe.  The  same  priests  allege  that  he  had  fifty  thonsan  d 
Atheistic  followers  at  Paris !  One  of  his  books  was  con- 
demned to  the  flames  by  the  Sorbonne.  Yahini  himself  met 
eventually  with  the  same  fate.  Tried  at  Toulouse  for  heresy, 
he  was  condemned  as  an  Atheist,  and  sentenced  to  the  stake. 
At  the  trial  he  protested  his  belief  in  God,  and  defended  the 
existence  of  Deity  with  the  flimsiest  arguments;  so  flimsy, 
indeed,  that  one  can  scarcely  read  them,  without  suspecting 
that  he  was  pouring  irony  on  his  judges.  They  ordered  him 
to  have  his  tongue  cut  out  before  being  burnt  alive.  Jt  is 
said  that  he  afterwards  confessed,  took  the  communion,  and 
declared  himself  ready  to  subscribe  the  tenets  of  the  Church. 

But  if  he  did  so,  he  certainly  recovered  his  natural  dignity 
when  he  had  to  face  the  worst.  Le  M&rcwre  Franfaty,  which 
'cannot  be  suspected  of  partiality  towards  him,  reports  that 
"  he  died  with  as  much  constancy,  patience,  and  fortitude  as 
any  other  man  ever  seen ;  for  setting  forth  from  the  Con'- 
fciergerie  joyful  and  elate,  he  pronounced  in.  Italian  these 


'  VOLNEY:  91 

words — '  Come,  let  us  die  cheerfully  like  a  philosopher ! ' n 
There  is  a  report  that,  on  seeing  the  pile,  he  cried  out  "  Ah, 
my  God!"  On  which  a  bystander  said,  "You  believe  in 
God,  then/'  "  No,"  he  retorted,  "  it's  a  fashion  of  speaking." 
Father  Garasse  says  that  he  uttered  many  other  notable 
blasphemies,  refused  to  ask  forgiveness  of  God,  or  of  the 
king,  and  died  furious  and  defiant.  So  obstinate  was  he, 
that  pincers  had  to  be  employed  to  pluck  out  his  tongue. 
President  Gram  on  d,  author  of  the  History  of  France  Under 
Louis  XIII.,  writes  :  "  I  saw  him  in  the  tumbril  as  they  led 
him  to  execution,  mocking  the  Cordelier  who  had  been  sent 
to  exhort  him  to  repentance,  and  :  insulting  our  Savior  by 
these  impious  words.  '  He  sweated  with  fear  and  weakness, 
and  I,  I  die  undaunted.' " 

Vanini's  martyrdom  took  place  at  Toulouse  on  February 
19,1619.  He  was  only  thirty-four,  an  age,  .as  Camille  Des- 
moulins  said,  "fatal  to  revolutionists." 

[The  reader  may  consult  M.  X.  Rousselot's  (Ewvres  PhilosopJvique 
de  Vaniniy  Avec  une  Notice  sur  sa  Vie  et  sea  Ouvrages.  Paris  1842.") 


..VOLNEY. 

Constantino  Francois  de  Chasseboeuf,  known  in  literature 
by  the  name  of  Volney,  from  which  he  took  his  title  on 
becoming  a  peer  of  France,  was  born  in  February,  1757.  He 
was  a  great  traveller,  and  his  visits  to  Oriental  countries 
were  described  BO  graphically  and  philosophically,  that 
Gibbon  wished  he  might  go  over  the  whole  world  and  record 
his  experiences  for  the  delight  and  edification  of  mankind. 
His  Atheism,  was  always  unconcealed,  and  in  his  famous 
Ruins  of  Empires  he  always  exhibits  theology  and  priestcraft 
as  the  constant  enemies  of  civilisation.  His  sceptical  History 
of  Samuel,  which  is  sometimes  wrongly  ascribed  to  Voltaire, 
was  written  within  a  year  of  his  death.  • 

A  very  foolish  story  about  Volney's  "  cowardice "  in  a 
atorm  is  still  circulated  in  pious  tracts.  It  is  said  that  he. 
threw  himself  on  the  deck  of  the  vessel,  crying  in  agony, 
"Oh,  my  God,  my  God !"  "  There  is  a  God,  then,  Monsieur 


92  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

Volney  P"  said  cine  of  the  passengers.  "  Oh,  yes,"  he  ex- 
claimed, "  there  is,  there  is,  Lord  save  me  !"  When  the  vessel 
arrived  safely  in  port,  goes  the  story,  he  "  returned  to  his 
atheistical  sentiments." 

I  have  traced  this  nonsense  back  to  the  Tract  Magazine,  for 
July  1832,  where  it  appears  very  much  amplified,  and  in  many 
respects  different.  It  appears  in  a  still  different  form  in  the 
eighth  volume  of  the  Evangelical  Magazine.  Beyond  that  it 
is  lost  in  the  obscurity  which  always  surrounds  the  birth 
of  these  edifying  fictions. 

Volney  died  at  Paris  on  April  25, 1820,  leaving  a  large  part 
of  his  fortune  to  be  spent  on  prize  essays  on  the  subject  of 
language.  Adolphe  Bossange,  in  a  notice  of  the  life  and 
writings  of  Volney,  prefixed  to  the  1838  (Paris)  edition  of  his 
works,  gives  the  following  account  of  his  last  hours  : — 

"  His  health,  which  had  always  been  delicate,  be.came  languid, 
and  soon  he  felt  his  end  was  approaching.  It  was  worthy  of  his 
life. 

"'I  know  the  custom  of  your  profession/  he  said  to  the  doctor 
three  days  before  he  died ;  «  but  I  wish  you  not  to  play  on  my 
imagination  like  that  of  other  patients.  I  do  not  fear  death.  Tell 
me  frankly  what  you  think  of  my  condition,  for  I  have  arrange- 
ments to  make.'  The  doctor  seemed  to  hesitate.  '  I  know  enough* 
said  Volney, « let  them  bring  a  notary.' 

"He  dictated  his  will  with  the  utmost  calmness ;  and  not  aban- 
doning at  the  last  moment  the  idea  which  had  never  ceased  to 
occupy  his  mind  during  twenty-five  years,  and  doubtless  fearing 
that  his  labors  would  be  brought  to  a  cessation  by  his  death,  he 
devoted  the  sum  of  24,000  francs  to  founding  an  annual  prize  for 
the  best  essay  on  the  philosophical  study  of  languages." 

Volney's  death  in  the  principles  which  guided  his  laborious 
and  useful  life  was  so  notorious  that  the  Abbe*  Migne,  in  his 
great  Catholic  Dictionary,  says,  "  It  appears  that  in  his  last 
moments  he  refused  the  consolations  of  religion."  • 


VOLTAIRE. 

Fran§ois  Marie  Arouet,  generally  known  by  the  name  of 
Voltaire,  was  born  at  Ohatenay  on  February  20,  1694.  '  He 
died  at  Paris,  on  May  30, 1778.  To  write  his  life  during  those 

•  Dictionnaire  de  Biogra/phie  Chretienne  et  Anti-Chretienne. 


VOLTAIRE.  93 

eighty-three  years  would  be  to  give  the  intellectual  history 
of  Europe. 

While  Voltaire  was  living  at  Ferney  in  1768,  he  gave  a 
curious  exhibition  of  that  profane  sportiveness  which  was  a 
strong  element  in  his  character.  On  Easter  Sunday  he  took 
his  secretary  Wagniere  with  him  to  commune  at  the  village 
church,  and  also  "  to  lecture  a  little  those  scoundrels  who 
steal  continually."  Apprised  of  Voltaire's  sermon  on  theft, 
the  Bishop  of  Anneci  rebuked  him,  and  finally  "  forbade  every 
curate,  priest,  and  monk  of  his  diocese  to  confess,  absolve  or 
give  the  communion  to  the  seigneur  of  Ferney,  without  his 
express  orders,  under  pain  of  interdiction."  With  a  wicked 
light  in  his  eyes,  Voltaire  said  he  would  commune  in  spite  of 
the  Bishop ;  nay,  that  the  ceremony  should  be  gone  through 
in  his  chamber.  Then  ensued  an  exquisite  comedy,  which 
shakes  one's  sides  even  as  described  by  the  stolid  Wagniore. 
Feigning  a  deadly  sickness,  Voltaire  took  to  his  bed.  The 
surgeon,  who  found  his  pulse  was  excellent,  was  bamboozled 
into  certifying  that  he  was  in  danger  of  death.  Then  the 
priest  was  summoned  to  administer  the  last  consolation.  The 
poor  devil  at  first  objected,  but  Voltaire  threatened  him  with 
legal  proceedings  for  refusing  to  bring  the  sacrament  to  a 
dying  man,  who  had  never  been  excommunicated.  This  was 
accompanied  with  a  grave  declaration  that  M.  de  Voltaire 
4<  had  never  ceased  to  respect  and  to  practise  the  Catholic 
religion."  Eventually  the  priest  came  "  half  dead  with  fear." 
Voltaire  demanded  absolution  at  once,  but  the  Capuchin 
pulled  out  of  his  pocket  a  profession  of  faith,  drawn  up  by 
the  Bishop,  which  Voltaire  was  required  to  sign.  Then  the 
comedy  deepened.  Voltaire  kept  demanding  absolution,  and 
the  distracted  priest  kept  presenting  the  document  for  his 
signature.  At  last  the  Lord  of  Ferney  had  his  way.  The 
priest  gave  him  the  wafer,  and  Voltaire  declared,  "  Having 
my  Grod  in  my  mouth,"  that  he  forgave  his  enemies.  Directly 
he  left  the  room,  Voltaire  leapt  briskly  out  of  bed,  where  a» 
minute  before  he  seemed  unable  to  move.  "  I  have  had  a 
little  trouble,"  he  said  to  Wagniere,  "with  this  comical  genius 
of  a  Capuchin ;  but  that  was  only  for  amusement,  and  to 
accomplish  a  good  purpose.  Let  us  take  a  turn  in  the  garden. 


04  INFIDEL   DEATH-BEDS. 

I  told  you  I  would  be  confessed  and  commune  in  my  bed,  in 
spite  of  M.  Biord."1 

Voltaire  treated  Christianity  BO  lightly  that  he  confessed 
and  iook  the  sacrament  for  a  joke.  Is  it  wonderful  if  he  did 
the  same  thing  on  his  death-bed  to  secure  the  decent  burial 
of  his  corpse  ?  He  remembered  his  own  bitter  sorrow  and 
indignation,  which  he  expressed  in  burning  verse,  when  the 
remains  of  poor  Adrienne  Lecouvreur  were  refused  sepulture 
because  she  died  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church.  Fearing 
similar  treatment  himself,  he  arranged  to  cheat  the  Church 
again.  By  the  agency  of  his  nephew,  the  Abbe  Mignot,  the 
Abbe  Gautier  was  brought  to  his  bedside,  and  according  to 
Condorcet  he  "  confessed  Voltaire,  receiving  from  him  a  pro- 
fession of  faith,  by  which  he  declared  that  he  died  ia  the 
Catholic  religion,  wherein  he  was  born."2  This  story  is- 
generally  credited,  but  its  truth  is  by  no  means  indisputable  ; 
for  in  the  Abbe  Gautier's  declaration  to  the  Prior  of  the 
Abbey  of  Scellieres,  where  Voltaire's  remains  were  interred, 
he  says  that  when  he  visited  M.  de  Voltaire,  ne  found  him 
"  unfit  to  le  confessed." 

The  curate  of  St.  Sulpice  was  annoyed  at  being  forestalled 
by  the  Abbe  Gautier,  and  as  Voltaire  was  his  parishioner 
he  demanded  "  a  detailed  profession  of  faith  and  a  disavowal 
of  all  heretical  doctrines."  He  paid  the  dying  Freethinker 
many  unwelcome  visits,  in  .the  vain  hope  of  obtaining  a  full 
recantation,  which  would  be  a  fine  feather  in  his  hat.  The 
last  of  these  visits  is  thus  described  by  Wagnicre,  who  was 
an  eye-witness  to  the  scene.  I  take  Carlyle's  tr&nslation  : 

«  Two  days  before  that  mournful  death,  M.  1-  Abbe"  Mignot,  hifl 
nephew,  went  to  seek  the  Cure"  of  St.  Sulpice  and  the  Abbs'  Gau- 
thier,  and  brought  them  into  his  uncle's  sick  room ;  who,  on  being 
informed  that  the  Abbe  Gauthier  was  there^  « Ah,  well ! '  said  he, 
'give  him  my  compliments  and  my  thanks.'  The  Abbe*  spoke 
some  words  to  him,  exhorting  him  to  patience.  The  Cure"  of  St. 
Sulpice  then  came  forward,  having  announced  himself,  and  asked 
of  M.  de  Voltaire,  elevating  his  voice,  if  he  acknowledged  the 
divinity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  The  sick  man  pushed  one  of 
his. hands  against  the  Cure's  calotte  (coif)/  shoving  him  backhand 
cried,  turning  abruptly  to  the  other  side,  « Let  me  die  in  peace 

i  Parton's  Life  of  Voltcvire,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  410— 415. 
«  Condorcet's  Vie  de  Voltcvire,  p.  144. 


VOLTAIRE.  95 

(Laissez-moi  mourir  en  paix).'  The  Cure  seemingly  considered 
his  person  soiled,  and  his '  coif  dishonored,  by  the  touch  of  the 
philosopher.  He  made  the  sick-nurse  give  him  a  little  brushing, 
and  then  went  out  with  the  Abbe  Gauthier."  3 

.  A  further  proof  that  Voltaire  made  no  real  recantation  lies 
in  the  fact  that  the  Bishop  of  Troyes  sent  a  peremptory  dis- 
patch to  the  Prior  of  Scellieres,  which  lay  in  his  diocese, 
forbidding  him  to  inter  the  heretic's  remains/  The  dispatch, 
however,  arrived  too  late,  and  Voltaire's  ashes  remained  there 
until  1791,  when  they  were  removed  to  Paris  and  placed  in 
the  Pantheon,  by  order  of  the  National  Assembly. 

Voltaire's  last  moments  are  described  by  Wagni&re.  I  again 
take  Carlyle's  translation. 

"  He  expired  about  a  quarter  past  eleven  at  night,  with  the  most 
perfect  tranquility,  after  having. suffered  the  cruelest  pains  in  con- 
sequence  of  those  fatal  drugs,  which  his  own  imprudence,  and 
especially  that  of  the  persons  who  should  have  looked  to  it,  made 
him  swallow.  "  Ten  minutes  before  his  last  breath  he  took  the 
hand  of  Morand,  his  valet-de-chambre,  who  was  watching  him; 
pressed  it,  and  said,  « Adieu,  mon  cher  Morand; je  me  mews' — «  Adieu, 
my  dear  Morand,  I  am  gone.'  These  are  the  last  words  uttered  by 
M.  de  Voltaire."  4 

Such  are  the  facts  of  Voltaire's  decease.  He  made  no 
recantation,  he  refused  to  utter  or  sign  a  confession  of  faith!, 
but  with  the  connivance  of  his  nephew,  the  Abbe  Mignot,  he 
tricked  the  Church  into  granting  him  a  decent  burial,  no$ 
choosing  to  be  flung  into  a  ditch  or  buried  like  a  dog.  His 
heresy  was  never  seriously  questioned  at  the  time,  and  the 
clergy  actually  clamored  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Prior  who 
had  allowed  his  body  to  be  interred  in  a  church  vault.* 

Many  years  afterwards  the  priests  pretended  that  Voltaire 
died  raving.  They  declared  that  Marshal  Richelieu  was 
horrified  by  the  scene  and  obliged  to  leave  the  chamber. 
From  France  the  pious  concoction  spread  to  England,  until 
it"  was  exposed  by  Sir  Charles  Morgan,  who  published  the 
following  extracts  from  a  letter  by  Dr.  Burard,  who,  as 
assistant  physician,  was  constantly  about  Voltaire  in  his  last 
moments  : 

«<  I  feel  happy  in  being  able,  while  paying  homage  to  truth,  to 

8  Carlyle's  Assays,  Vol.  II.  (People's  Edition),  p.  161. 
*  Carlyle,  Vol.  II.,  p.  160.  •  Parton,  Vol.  II.,  p.  165. 


96  INFIDEL  DEATH-BEDS. 

'destroy  the  effects  of  the  lying  stories  which  "have  been  told 
respecting  the  last  moments  of  Mons.  de  Voltaire.  I  was,  by 
office,  one  of  those  who  were  appointed  to  watch  the  whole  pro- 
gress  of  his  illness,  with  M.  M.  Tronchin,  Lorry,  and  Try,  hia 
medical  attendants.  I  never  left  him  for  an  instant  during  his 
last  moments,  and  I  can  certify  that  we  invariably  observed  in 
him  the  same  strength  of  character,  though  his  disease  was  neces- 
sarily attended  with  horrible  pain.  (Here  follow  the  details  of 
his  case.)  We  positively  forbade  him  to  speak  in  order  to  prevent 
the  increase  of  a  spitting  of  blood,  with  which  he  was  attacked  j 
Btill  he  continued  to  communicate  with  us  by  means  of  little  cards, 
on  which  he  wrote  his  questions ;  we  replied  to  him  verbally,  and 
if  he  was  not  satisfied,  he  always  made  his  observations  to  us  in 
writing.  He  therefore  detained  his  faculties  up  to  the  last  moment, 
and  the  fooleries  which  have  been  attributed  to  him  are  deserving 
of  th.e  greatest  contempt.  It  could  not  even  be  said  that  such  or 
such  person  had  related  any  circumstance  of  his  death,  as  being 
witness  to  it ;  for  at  the  last,  admission  to  his  chamber  was  for- 
bidden to  any  person.  Those  who  came  to  obtain  intelligence 
respecting  the  patient,  waited  in  the  saloon,  and  other  apartments 
at  hand.  The  proposition,  therefore,  which  has  been  put  in  the 
mouth  of  Marshal  Richelieu  is  as  unfounded  as  the  rest. 
«  Paris,  April  3rd,  1819.  (Signed)  BUKABD."  • 

Another  slander  .appears  to  emanate  from  the  Abbe 
Barruel,  who  was  so  well  informed  about  Voltaire  that  he 
calls  him  "  the  dying  Atheist,"  when,  as  all  the  world  knows, 
lie  was  a  Deist. 

« In  his  last-  illness  he  sent  for  Dr.  Tronchin.  When  the  Doctor 
came,  he  found  Voltaire  in  the  greatest  agony,  exclaiming  with 
the  utmost  horror — '  I  am  abandoned  by  God  and  man.'  He  then 
said, « Doctor,  I  will  give  you  half  of  .what  I  am  worth,  if  you  will 
give  me  six  months'  life.'  The  doctor  answered,  '  Sir,  you  cannot 
live  six  weeks.'  Voltaire  replied, « Then  I  shall  go  to  hell,  and  vou 
will  go  with  me ! '  and  soon  after  expired." 

When  the  clergy  are  reduced  to  manufacture  such  con- 
temptible rubbish  as  this,  they  must  indeed  be  in  great 
straits.  It  is  flatly  contradicted  bv  the  evidence  of  every 
contemporary  of  Voltaire. 

My  readers  will,  I  think,  be  fully  satisfied  that  Voltaire 
neither  recanted  nor  died  raving,  but  remained  a  sceptic  to 
the  last :  passing  away  quietly,  at  a  ripe  old  age,  to  "  the  un- 
discovered country  from  whose  bourne,  no  traveller  retains," 
and  leaving  behind  him  a  name  that  brightens  the  track  of 
time. 

•  Philosophy  of  Morals,  by  Sir  Charles  Morgan. 


(  JAMES   WATSON.  97 

j 

JAMES   WATSON. 

James  Watson  was  one  of  the  bravest  heroes  in  the  struggle 
for  a  free  press.  He  was  one  of  Richard  Carlile's  shopmen, 
and  took  his  share  of  imprisonment  when  the  Government 
tried  to  suppress  Thomas  Paine's  Age  of  Reason  and  several 
other  Freethought  publications.  In  fighting  for  the  un^ 
stamped  press,  he  was  again  imprisoned  in  1833.  As  a  pub- 
lisher he  was  notorious  for  his  editions  of  Paine,  Mirabaud, 
Volney,  Shelley,  and  Owen.  He  died  on  November  29,  1874, 
aged  seventy-five,  "  passing  away  in  his  sleep,  without  a 
struggle,  without  a  sigh." 7 


JOHN  WATTS. 

John'Watts  was  at  one  time  sub-editor  of  the  Reasoner,  and 
afterwards,  fbr  an  interval,  editor  of  the  National  Reformer. 
He  was  the  author  of  several  publications,  including  Half 
Hours  with  Freethinkers  in  collaboration  with  Charles  Brad- 
laugh.  His  death  took  place  on  October  31,  1866,  and  the 
following  account  of  it  was  written  by  Dr.  George  Sexton  and 
published  in  the  National  Reformer  of  the  following  week.  • 

"  At  about  half-past  seven  in  the  evening  he  breathed  his  last, 
BO  gently  that  although  I  had  one  of  his  hands  in  mine,  and  his 
brother  the  other  in  his,  the  moment  of  his  death  passed  almost 
unobserved  by  either  of  ,us.  No  groan,  no  sigh,  no  pang  indicated 
his  departure.  He  died  as  a  candle  goes  out  when  burned  to  the 
socket." 

;  George  Sexton  has  since  turned  Christian,  at  least  by  pro- 
fession; but,  after  what  he  has  written  of  the  last  moments 
of  John  Watts,  he  can  scarcely  pretend  that  unbelievers  have 
any  fear  of  death. 


W00LSTON. 

Woolston  was  born  at  Northampton  in  1669,  and 
he  died  in  London  in  1733.    He  was  educated  at  Sidney 

7  James  Watson,  by  W.  J.  Lintoiu  p.  86. 


1)8  INFIDEL  DEATH  BEDS. 

College,  Cambridge,  taking  his  M.A.  degree,  and  being  elected 
a  fellow.  Afterwards  he  was  deprived  of  his  fellowship  for 
heresy.  Entering  into  holy  orders,  he  closely  studied  divinity, 
and  gained  a  reputation  for  scholarship,  as  well  as  for 
sobriety  'and  benevolence.  His  profound  knowledge  of 
ecclesiastical  history  gave  him  a  contempt  for  the  Fathers, 
in  attacking  whom  he  reflected  on  the  modern  olergy.  He 
maintained  that  miracles  were  incredible,  and  that  all  the 
supernatural  stories  of  the  New  Testament  must  be  regarded 
as  figurative.  For  this  he  was  prosecuted  on  a  charge  of 
blasphemy  and  profaneness,  but  the  action  dropped  through 
the  honorable  intervention  of  Whiston.  Subsequently  he 
published  Six  Discourses  on  Miracles,  which  were  dedicated 
to  six  bishops.  In  these  the  Church  was  assailed  in  homely 
language,  and  her  doctrines  were  mercilessly  ridiculed. 
Thirty  thousand  copies  are  said  to  have  been  sold.  A  fresh 
prosecution  for  blasphemy  was  commenced,  the  Attorney- 
General  declaring  the  Discourses  to  be  "  the  most  blasr 
phemous  book  that  ever  was  published  in  any  age  whatever." 
Woolston  ably  defended  himself,  but  he  was  found  guilty, 
and  sentenced  to  one  year's  imprisonment  and  a  fine  of  £100. 
Being  too  poor  to  pay  the  fine,  Christian  charity  .  detained 
him  permanently  in  the  King's  Bench  Prison.  "With  a  noble 
courage  he  refused  to  purchase  his  release  by  promising  to 
refrain  from  promulgating  his  views,  and  prison  fever .  at 
length  released  him  from  his  misery.  The  following  account 
of  his  last  moments  is  taken  from  the  Daily  Courant  of  Monday, 
January  29,  1733  :— 

"On  Saturday  night,  about  nine  o'clock,  died  Mr.  Woolston, 
author  of  the  «  Discourses  on  our  Savior's  Miracles,'  in  the  sixty- 
sixth  year  of  his  age.  About  five  minutes  before  he  died  he  uttered 
these  words:  'This  is  a  struggle  which  all  men  must  go  through, 
and  which  I  bear  not  only  with  patience  but  willingness.'  Upon 
which  he  closed  his  eyes,  and  shut  his  lips,  with  a  seeming  design 
to  compose  his  face  with  decency,  without  the  help  pi  a  friend's 
hand,  and  then  he  expired." 

Without  the  help  of  a  friend's  hand!  Helpless  and  friendless, 
pent  in  a  prison  cell,  the  brave  old  man  faced  Death  in  soli- 
tary grandeur,  yielding,  for  the  first  and  last  time,  to  the 
lord  of  all. 


APPENDIX. 

COLONEL  INGERSOLL'S  DEATH. 

There  are  so  many  Christian  preachers  in  the 
country  who  think  the  truth  of  God  will  more 
abound  through  their  lying,  that  stories  of  the  re- 
cantation of  his  Infidelity  and  conversion  to 
Christianity  of  the  late  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  are 
being  published  with  a  frequency  which  shows  the 
zeal  of  the  pious  ones  of  the  earth.  The  Ingersoll 
family  have  had  such  stories  sent  to  them  by  the 
dozen,  with  a  request  for  the  facts,  and  The  Truth 
Seeker  has  answered  in  the  paper  and  by  letter 
some  score  or  two  within  the  past  few  weeks.  To 
set  the  matter  at  rest,  and  to  have  the  facts  in 
shape  for  use  by  Colonel  Ingersoll's  friends  and 
by  future  historians,  the  family  have  prepared  the 
following  sworn  statement: 

STATE  OF  NEW  YORK       ) 
COUNTY  OF  NEW  YORK  j  ss* 

ROBERT  G.  INGERSOLL. 

THE  TRUE   STORY  OF  His  ILLNESS  AND  DEATH. 

On  November  16,  1896,  while  on  a  lecture  trip,  at 
Janesville,  Wisconsin,  Colonel  Ingersoll  had  a  cere- 
bral hemorrhage.  He  continued  to  lecture  for  a 
few  days,  but  at  the  solicitation  of  his  family  went 
to  Chicago  and  consulted  Dr.  Frank  Billings,  who 
advised  him  to  return  home  and  rest  for  two 
months,  which  he  did.  He  then,  January  24,  1897, 
resumed  lecturing,  which  he  continued  up  to  the 
time  of  his  death.  It  was  at  this  time,  early  in 
1897,  that  he  developed  angina  pectoris,  from  which 
he  suffered  greatly  and  which  was  the  cause  of  his 
death.  Since  his  death  we  have  learned  that  he 
knew  exactly  his  condition.  In  other  words,  his 
physicians  had  told  him  that  he  was  likely  to  die  at 


APPENDIX. 

any  moment,  but  acceding  to  his  earnest  entreaties 
they  did  not  tell  his  family.  In  spite  of  the  fact 
that  death  was  ever  beside  him,  he  was  always  very 
cheerful,  and  when  asked  as  to  his  health  invariably 
replied  "all  right."  During  the  night  of  July  20, 
1899,  he  had  an  attack  of  acute  indigestion  and  slept 
very  little,  but  he  came  to  breakfast  the  next  morn- 
ing and  afterward  sat  on  the  piazza,  as  he  was  wont 
to  do,  reading  and  talking  with  the  family.  At 
about  ten  thirty  he  said  he  would  lie  down  and  rest 
a  little  and  would  then  come  down  and  play  pool 
with  his  son-in-law.  Mrs.  Ingersoll  accompanied 
him  to  their  bedroom  and  remained  with  him  while 
he  slept.  At  about  11.45  he  arose  and  sat  in  his 
chair  to  put  on  his  shoes.  Miss  Sue  Sharkey  came 
into  the  room  followed  by  Mrs.  Sue  M.  Farrell. 
Mrs.  Ingersoll  said,  "Do  not  dress,  papa,  until 
after  luncheon.  I  will  eat  upstairs  with  you."  He 
replied:  "Oh,  no,  I  do  not  want  to  trouble  you/' 
Mrs.  Farrell  then  said,  "How  absurd,  after  the 
hundreds  of  times  you  have  eaten  upstairs  with  her." 
He  looked  up  laughingly  at  Mrs.  Farrell  as  she 
turned  to  leave  the  room,  and  then  Mrs.  Ingersoll 
said,  "Why,  papa,  your  tongue  is  coated;  I  must 
give  you  some  medicine."  He  looked  up  at  her  with 
a  smile  and  as  he  did  so  closed  his  eyes  and  passed 
away  without  a  struggle,  a  pang  or  even  a  sigh.  No 
one  else  was  present.  It  is  said  that  he  recanted. 
This  is  a  cruel  and  malicious  falsehood,  without  the 
slightest  foundation  in  fact.  His  convictions  on 
the  subject  of  religion  remained  absolutely  un- 
changed. He  died  as  he  had  lived — an  Agnostic. 

EVA  A.  INGERSOLL, 
SUE  SHARKEY, 
SUE  M.  FARRELL. 

Severally  affirmed  to  before  me  this  17th  day  of 
March,  1906. 

JOHN  H.  HAZELTON, 
Notary  Public,  New  York  County,  No.  59. 


APPENDIX. 

Several  copies  of  this  document  have  been  ex- 
ecuted and  placed  in  safe  keeping  for  the  use  of 
future  historians,  and  to  use  in  refuting  the  lies 
which  have  been  and  will  be  told  as  to  Colonel 
Ingersoll's  death.  The  pulpit  has  not  only  made 
Colonel  Ingersoll  recant,  but  one  priest  told 
his  parishioners  that  the  Colonel  sent  for  a 
Roman  Catholic  priest.  The  foregoing  statement 
has  been  made  in  the  interest  of  the  truth.  The 
Sue  Sharkey,  whose  name  is  affixed  to  the  affidavit, 
was  a  member  of  the  family,  and  is  a  Roman  Catho- 
lic in  religion. 

Whenever  one  of  our  readers  sees  in  his  local 
newspaper  a  repetition  of  the  idle  tale  that  Colonel 
Ingersoll  recanted  we  hope  he  or  she  will  copy 
this  and  embody  it  in  a  letter  to  that  newspaper,  and 
tell  the  editor  that  if  he  is  an  honest  man  he  will 
print  it ;  if  he  refuses  to  print  it,  tell  him  he  is  just  a 
little  less  honest  than  a  horsethief,  and  stop  taking 
his  paper. 


DENIED  BY  AFFIDAVITS. 
From  the  New  York  Truth  Seeker,  Feb.  19th,  1910. 

Immediately  upon  the  death  of  Robert  G.  Inger- 
soll in  1899,  a  report  that  upon  his  "dying  bed"  he 
had  renounced  his  Agnosticism,  and  had  expressed 
regret  for  having  entertained  such  views,  was  fabri- 
cated and  put  in  circulation  by  priests,  ministers, 
and  evangelists.  The  family  of  Colonel  Ingersoll, 
being  shocked  and  outraged  by  this  malicious  false- 
hood, at  once  published  a  statement  and  affidavit  de- 
scribing his  last  moments  and  showing  the  impossi- 
bility of  the  reports  being  true.  The  statement  of 
facts  did  not  check  the  lying,  which  went  on,  cul- 
minating in  an  affidavit  by  a  wretch  named  Berry  of 
St.  Johns,  Oregon,  that  the  recantation  had  actually 


APPENDIX. 

taken  place  and  giving  other  details  obviously  bor- 
rowed from  previously  fabricated  accounts  of  other 
Infidel  deathbeds.  Evangelists  and  the  religious 
press,  professing  to  regard  the  miserable  inven- 
tions of  Berry  as  new  evidence,  have  circulated  his 
story  East  and  West,  and  have  refused  to  desist 
when  informed  and  placed  in  possession  of  the -fact 
that  the  affidavit  of  Berry  does  not  contain  a  word 
of  truth.  Their  course  has  shown  that  they  are  in- 
different to  its  falsity  so  long  as  it  serves  their  pur- 
pose. In  consequence,  the  widow  and  daughter  of 
Colonel  Ingersoll  have  made  a  second  affidavit  dis- 
posing of  Berry's.  It  is  to  the  shame  and  reproach 
of  religion  that  they  should  be  forced  by  persistent 
lying  on  the  part  of  its  propagandists  to  take  this 
course.  THE  TRUTH  SEEKER  prints  the  affidavits 
of  Mrs.  Ingersoll  and  Miss  Ingersoll,  the  originals 
of  which  are  at  this  office  for  inspection.  We  un- 
derstand that  the  genuineness  of  the  previous  af- 
fidavits published  and  republished  in  THE  TRUTH 
SEEKER  has,  in  their  desperation,  been  denied  by  the 
circulators  of  the  Berry  testimony.  Freethinkers, 
wherever  they  may  hear  or  see  any  statement  con- 
flicting with  the  facts  with  which  they  are  so  well 
acquainted,  will  be  justified  in  rising  up  and  giving 
such  statement  its  right  name. 

MRS.  INGERSOLL'S  AFFIDAVIT. 

STATE  OF  NEW  YORK, 
COUNTY  OF  NEW  YORK, 

Eva  A.  Ingersoll,  having  duly  affirmed,  deposes 
and  says : 

That  she  is  the  widow  of  the  late  Colonel  Robert 
G.  Ingersoll,  who  died  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  New  York, 
on  July  21,  1899. 

That  she  has  been  informed  that,  in  December, 


APPENDIX. 

1908,  a  certain  affidavit  was  made  reading  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  do  hereby  declare  that  Robert  Ingersoll  con- 
fessed to  my  father,  Joehiel  S.  Berry,  on  his  dying 
bed,  that  he  did  not  believe  the  doctrine  he  preached. 

"He  said  these  words :  'Joehiel,  I  wish  I  had  my 
life  to  live  over  again/  When  asked  why,  he  said 
'Because  I  do  not  believe  what  I  have  preached  and 
never  have.  I  only  did  this  for  the  money  that  was 
in  it/ 

"His  daughter  than  asked,  Whose  life  shall  I 
live  after,  yours  or  mother's  ?'  and  he  said,  'Live  the 
life  of  your  mother/  Mrs.  Ingersoll  was  a  strict 
Baptist  and  a  sister  to  my  father. 

"(Signed)     ARCHIE  E.  BERRY, 

"St.  Johns,  Ore." 

or  reading  as  given  without  the  words  "on  his  dying 
bed/' 

That  the  name  of  deponent's  father  was  Parker ; 
and  that  the  name  of  deponent's  mother  was  Lyon. 
That  neither  her  father  nor  her  mother  was  married 
more  than  once. 

That  she  does  not  know  Archie  E.  Berry;  that 
she  never  knew  Joehiel  S.  Berry,  and  that  she  never 
saw,  so  far  as  she  knows,  either  of  them,  and  that 
she  never  heard  of  either  of  them  except  as  she  has 
heard  of  them  in  connection  with  the  above  alleged 
affidavit. 

That,  so  far  as  she  knows,  her  late  husband  never 
saw  or  knew  either  Archie  E.  Berry  or  Joehiel  S. 
Berry. 

That  no  one  by  the  name  of  Berry  was  present  at 
the  death  of  her  said  late  husband;  and  that  she 
knows  so  of  her  own  knowledge,  because  she  herself 
was  present  at  that  time  and  knows  all  of  the  per- 
sons then  present. 

That  any  statement  that  Archie  E.  Berry  is  de- 
ponent's nephew  is  false. 


,Y  APPENDIX. 

j 

That  any  statement  that  Joehiel  S.  Berry  was 
present  at  the  death  of  her  said  late  husband  is  false. 
That  any  statement  that  her  said  late  husband  re- 
canted from  his  public  utterances,  namely,  that  he 
was  an  Agnostic,  so  far  as  she  knows,  or,  as  she 
knows,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  is  false. 

That  deponent  is  not  and  never  has  been  a  Bap- 
tist and  has  been  and  still  is  an  Agnostic. 

EVA  A.  INGERSOLL. 

Subscribed  and  affirmed  to  before  me  this  27th 
day  of  January,  1910. 

JOHN  H.  HAZELTON, 
Notary  Public,  New  York  Co.,  No.  70. 

MISS  INGERSOLL'S  AFFIDAVIT. 

STATE  OF  NEW  YORK, 
COUNTY  OF  NEW  YORK. 

Maud  R.  Ingersoll,  having  first  duly  affirmed,  de- 
poses and  says : 

That  she  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Colonel  Robert 
G.  Ingersoll,  who  died  at  Dobbs  Ferry,  New  York, 
on  July  21,  1899,  and  of  Eva  A.  Ingersoll,  who 
signed  in  her  presence  the  annexed  affidavit,  made 
a  part  hereof  by  reference,  which  she  has  read  and 
the  contents  whereof  she  knows  and  which  contents 
she  believes  to  be  true. 

That  she  has  been  informed  that,  in  December, 
1908,  a  certain  affidavit  was  made  as  follows :  [Here 
the  Berry  affidavit  is  quoted]  or  reading  as  given 
without  the  words  "on  his  dying  bed." 

That  she  does  not  know  Archie  E.  Berry;  and 
that  she  never  knew  Joehiel  S.  Berry ;  and  that  she 
never  saw,  so  far  as  she  knows,  either  of  them,  and 
that  she  never  heard  of  either  of  them  except  as 
she  has  heard  of  them  in  connection  with  the  above 
alleged  affidavit. 

That,  so  far  as  she  knows,  her  said  late  father 


APPENDIX. 

never  saw  or  knew  either  Archie  E.  Berry  or  Joehiel 
S.  Berry. 

That,  so  far  as  she  knows,  her  said  late  father 
never  had  any  conversation  of  any  kind  with  Joehiel 
S.  Berry ;  and  that  her  said  late  father  in  her  pres- 
ence and  she,  or  her  said  late  father  in  her  presence 
or  she,  never  had  any  such  conversation  as  has  been 
given  in  said  alleged  affidavit  above  given,  or  any 
similar  conversation,  or  anything  like  it,  or  any  part 
of  it,  or  any  conversation  having  any  similar  im- 
port, at  any  time,  with  any  person  or  persons. 

That  no  such  conversation  as  is  alleged  in  said 
alleged  affidavit  of  Archie  E.  Berry  as  occurring 
between  deponent  and  her  said  late  father  in  the 
presence  of  Joehiel  S.  Berry  could  have  occurred, 
because  her  said  late  father  never  made  any  such 
statement  in  her  presence,  and  her  said  mother  has 
always  been,  so  far  as  deponent  knows,  an  Agnostic, 
just  as  her  said  late  father  was,  and  never,  so  far 
as  deponent  knows,  a  Baptist  nor  anything  other 
than  an  Agnostic. 

That  any  statement  that  Archie  E.  Berry  is  the 
nephew  of  deponent's  mother  is,  to  the  best  of  de- 
ponent's knowledge,  information  and  belief,  false. 

That  any  statement  that  her  said  late  father  re- 
canted from  his  public  utterances,  namely,  that  he 
was  an  Agnostic  is,  to  the  best  information,  the 
knowledge  and  the  belief  of  deponent,  false. 

MAUD  R.  INGERSOLL. 

Subscribed  and  affirmed  before  me  this  27th  day 
of  January,  1910.  JOHN  H.  HAZELTON, 

Notary  Public,  New  York  Co.,  No.  70. 


I  IT  ID  IE 


Amberley,  Lord 
*Baskerville,  John.. 
*Bayle,  Pierre 
*Bentham,  Jeremy 
*Bert,  Paul 

Bolingbroke,  Lord 
*Broussais,  Francois 

Bruno,  Giordano 

Buckle,  Henry  T 

Byron,  Lord 

Carlile,  Richard 

Clifford,  Willian 
*Clootz,  Anacharsis 

Collins,  Anthony 
*Comte,  Auguste 

Condorcet    . . . 

Cooper,  Robert 
*D'Alembert 

Danton 

*Darwin,  Charles 
*Darwin,  Erasmus 
-Delambre    ... 

Diderot,  Denis 
*Dolet,  Etienne 

Eliot,  George 

Frederick  the  Great 

Gambetta    ... 
*Garibaldi    ... 

Gendre,  Isaac 

Gibbon  -      ... 
•Godwin 

Goethe 


with  a  Star  were  not  included  in  the  First  Edition. 

PAGE                                                                            PAGE 

... 

11 

*Grote           48 

n  

11 
12 

*Helvetius    47 
Hetherington,  Henry      ...    48 

y 

13 

Hobbes         ...         ..,        ...     50 

rd"         ... 

14 
16 

Holyoake,  Austin  
Hugo,  Victor         

3 

ois 

17 

Hume          

56 

...         ... 

18 

Littre"      •     

59 

homas   ... 

20 

Martineau,  Harriet 

63 

.... 

21 

*Meslier,  Jean,         

63 

...         ..'. 

22 

*Mill,  James            

64 

i  Kingdon 

23 

Mill,  John  Stuart  ... 

65 

»is 

24 

MirabeaU    ...         

66 

r 

25 

Owen,  Robert        

.  69 

... 

26 

Paine,  Thomas       ...         v 

70, 

... 

27 

*Palmer,  Courtlandt 

7flj 

... 

28 

*Rabelais      

7? 

"... 

28 

*Reade,  Win  wood  

81 

... 

29 

*Roland,  Madame  

82 

31 

*Sand,  George           ..         .. 

83 

LS  

32 

*Schiller       

83 

...            ... 

32 

Shelley    •    

84 

...            ... 

33 

Spinoza 

86 

...            ... 

37 

Strauss        ...          .. 

88 

...            ... 

39 

Toland,  John 

89 

reat 

39 

Vanini 

90 

...        >  •  « 

40 

Volney.        ...          ..        .. 

91 

... 

43 

Voltaire 

92 

•  .        ... 

44 

Watson,  James 

97 

...       ... 

44 

Watts,  John           

97 

•  •        ... 

46 

Woolston,  Thomas 

97 

.  *        <.*» 

415 

Erratwm.— -Pierre  Bayle  is  wrongly  printed  as  Henri  Bayle  on 
page  12. 


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The  object  of  this  work  is  to  present  the  Course  of  F,    thought  thro 
out  the  Civilized  World  for  the  last  Four  Centuries,  from  tho  time  of  Columlj 
&nd  iirano  to  the  time  of  Ingersoll. 

It  is  a  radical  Histork  RocoM  cf  the  <~~e?  test  Develop  nonts  of  the  Hu; 
Race,  revealing  F:  rethought  as  .HD  .  -Heetual,  Moral,  Lit  iry,  Social,  Jr.: 
trial,  and  Politic  '  V  ,voj ;..;•'  *m  ::."  what  Freetho  f  :i  in  itsei .,  .' 

manifold  are  its  ,  .fiwi  '^H  and   »vr.          at  ho^e  and  pro*;  .  e  we  can 
futnro  tri     ;ph      Itc?       ;      th-?  Greaa  ^t  Thoughts  and  tl     Greatest 
ihe  Greates--  *  "-. ,;i  A  rinonious  and  Magnificent  Wh«A!e,  a  vivid  j^1 1 

of  man's  HIV  umest  •  ,    ..   'on,  with  the  added  glory  of    ^oman's  Eni.auc  | 
'  >n  fioiu  :   o  chaiudwid  slavery  of     b-    ,>aric  creed  and  church. 

TTr        ;KST  PlftT  of  th'     ;>OOA  deals  vith  Preethoujrrit  as  a  TJnivt  | 
P--  7e:    -y  -,  .-ip:rit,  a  Method,     t.e,iti-,ncr     ,t  unorganized  Irduence  in  ev| 

"  THE  SECOND  I  \i.vT  (•  ^'rec,  .-ought  as  ?m  Orgarnzed  M 

ment,  especially  in    '.  ^o-  and    his  histor    is  of  equal  in 

ts^ee  with  fho  fvt,  ^   '    •><.    ,  justly  understood  and        •  Pionoera  o*   | 

work  recognize         Kljidtlluno  3d  Pages  of  Printed  Matte,     i.d  nearly 

One  Miiiiii*     y  and  11   ..y'rullpage  Half     7iePorir< 

of  the  rioncjrs  of  Fret  dor-  aud  the  illustrious  Reformers  \/ho  have  live 
labored  to  make  this  world  ,>ett£j-. 

More  than  One  Hundred  Biogr      hi  u 

and  in  these  will  bo  gireri  a  picture  ::f  Freethought  pr 
mo55t  intereating  and  vali.,>,blc,  for  it  is  in  individuals  that  v 
pretations  of  the  age.  "~ 

The  Price  of  This  Superb  &ook    9  S5.OO 

and  not  elsewhere  for  the  same  amount  of  money  raa  be  round  such  an  . 
of  facts,  such  a  survey  of  history,  and  such  a  galaxy  o*  Fre  .bought. 

It  ij.  elegantly  bound.  It  is  a  book  for  the  home  and  e  fireside,  I 
oook  to  give  to  your  friends  when  they  ask.  What  is  Freel  kOiight~what  : 
done  and  what  is  it  doing  in  the  vvorld  ? 

This  is  the  most    universal  presentation  of    Freethoug  .„   :ver  givf 
ouolic,  and  no  Freethinker  qan  afford  to  be  without  it0    It   s  a  lib;  •'.i  >    •-• 
Address  all  orders  to        THE  TRUTH   SEEKER  C. 
62  Ver.ay  st    ,et,  New  V 


